Chapter 1 - Stumbling

Aside from her being raised in a bilingual household and having a mother that would never let her ‘explore’, Atsuko was an average American child. Some liked her generally easy-going, cool temperament—others hated her stiff moral code and the fact that she never resisted speaking up about something she considered wrong. She went through her primary school years with a few good friends and tried to use her secondary school years to ‘find herself’ as most children do. By the time she had graduated high school, then finished her first year of college she had come to a realization: she had no idea what she wanted to do with herself. Of course the fact that she hadn’t really taken more than a few hours in total over her lifetime probably had something to do with her lack of ideas.

Her independent nature put her off from any work that forced her to constantly work on a team. After all, the last time she had been on a team, (a tennis team in her sophomore year of high school,) she hadn’t ever properly played doubles simply because she only cared about her own performance. She was told to drop from the team and Atsuko obliged, shrugging it off as something she just wasn’t meant to do. Her next attempt at finding out ‘where she belonged’ was joining a martial arts class after school. This, however, only lead to her being overly ambitious and fracturing several bones in her right hand’s pinky and ring finger from trying to chop through double boards without knowing the proper technique. Another endeavor had her actually joining a group of her own accord—the school’s magazine. This effort ended well enough for the magazine, but after her unsuccessful attempt at leading the group that was putting together the project, Atsuko pretty much swore off groups altogether.

On a more suitable note to her temperament, she decided to begin volunteering at a local animal rescue and rehabilitation center in the middle of her junior year of high school. After being taught the basics, she was let loose to attend to duties set to her by a bulletin board. The animals didn’t give her trouble, at least not like humans had in her previous endeavors. Despite the wishes of her parents, she kept this ‘hobby’ going even through her college courses.

Her mother, Masami, was especially against it because of her not being supervised—a trait that would have been acceptable for a mother, if Atsuko were still a young child. That particular quirk had always bothered Atsuko, since curiosity was also part of her personal mix of traits. Her mother never allowed her out of her line of sight—an issue that kept Atsuko from ever being able to enjoy ‘exploring’ as a child. Something about a mother’s eagle eye piercing your back just sucked all the fun out of trying to find the start of a new adventure; especially when she tended to call you by your full name in a very displeased voice when you tried to avoid her gaze by ducking behind a tree trunk or some pile of debris.

Thankfully for Atsuko’s relationship with her mother, such overprotective behavior wasn’t allowed to continue via the insistence of the volunteer coordinator of the rescue center. Besides, her mother never took part in aiding her daughter in tasks so she was only being a hindrance when keeping watch over her when she took some of the domestic rescue animals out for walks in the forest surrounding the backside of the center.

Those particular woods, however, had always held a bit of fascination for her; and an opposite feeling for most of the animals she walked through there. It took Atsuko ‘till the summer between her second and third year of college, until she finally decided to thoroughly investigate the area. She did this on her own time—after a midday to evening shift as a volunteer—and took a little time to ask the manager of the center if she knew what she might find out there. All the manager knew for sure was that it bordered on the local ‘national forest’, which was convenient for releasing the wildlife the center rehabilitated.

Why Atsuko even wanted to know ‘what was out there’, she had little idea: perhaps it was the result of some kind of a ‘gut feeling’. Then again, it could have been from watching too many episodes of stuff like The X-Files and Searching for Bigfoot. Either way, she went with the urge and set out with her backpack, (only containing a small survival kit and a sleeping bag in case she got lost out there,) and a larger-than-average flashlight with new batteries clipped onto one of the belt loops on her dark green jeans.

The night was still a few hours away, so using the flashlight wasn’t likely but she had brought it for the same reason she had her backpack—‘just in case’. This thought was pounded into her brain by her parents as soon as she started volunteering at the center. Her mother always used the excuse of, ‘so that you’ll be safe, even if I’m not around’. Atsuko hadn’t really believed the justification, but she went along with the sentiment to keep her mother from freaking out. Masami’s version of ‘freaking out’ wasn’t pretty to see—try looking up a conniption fit and you might understand.

The trip was proving to be rather uneventful, though Inami did find it odd that she felt as if she already knew her way through the nonexistent paths in this forest. The birds were quiet if they even spoke up at all, and the only rustlings that she heard were quickly shown to be something harmless like a squirrel hurrying to get up a tree from the ground cover.

As she started to feel the need to get back to the center and give up on finding out whatever was making her so interested, Inami stumbled into a small clearing. It held the ruins of a small structure, as if there were once a home had been there ages ago. With a minor moment of hesitation expected of a reasonable person that had seen a handful of horror films, she went to check out the remains.

Nothing about her tiny journey had given her the impression that she would break through the ground within the first ten steps. By the time her brain even registered that rotting wood was what she’d stepped on and broken, it was too late to react. Her outcry was cut short as her head hit the side of the well and knocked her out of her conscious mind.

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