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Entry tags:	writing

Terror
i was going through my writings folder on my computer, trying to find more Ninsei notes so i can gather them all together in one spot when i stumbled upon some of my earlier writings.

this is a short story i wrote for one of my fiction workshops. it's pretty much complete, so i fixed it up a bit. i'd love to get more feed back before i say it's 'finished', so any c&c would be greatly appreciated.

the events in the beginning have been altered slightly for simplicity sake, as well as the ending (the events actually continued after the point i stopped, but that wasn't necessary for the story). all the dialogue was made up because i have no memory of what was actually said, but it was something like what i wrote.



January 31, 2002
R. May 10, 2005


Terror

James and I sat outside the darkened classroom building, staring at the stars, more vibrant in the country sky than back in the suburban skies of Connecticut. Recently I had just seen my first shooting star and so I was content to just sit and watch for my second. But James was getting restless and asked if I wanted to go on a walk.

“But it’s after midnight!”

James shrugged and since I wasn’t quite tired yet, I followed him. I could almost feel the loneliness of the classroom building behind us as we left. Due to the decreasing student body size, that wing of the daigaku had been closed the year before. I imagined the darkened windows were eyes, hallow and forlorn, but unable to even cry anymore. I wondered if James could feel it too.

The daigaku campus was small. There were only two dorms, a main building, a library, and a couple classroom buildings, all connected with a couple covered halls. The daigaku could hold several hundred students, but that semester had less than 300. During certain points of the day, like meal times, the campus seemed lively enough, but in the middle of the night, one had to wonder how much longer the school had.

Across the street of the daigaku was the athletic center where the World Games would be held the following summer. The Center was huge. The entire daigaku campus equaled not even one quarter of the compound, which would be equivalent to many, many blocks in a city. Despite its enormous size, the Center was beautifully maintained, with acres of perfectly cut grass and gardens overflowing with various flowers, still in bloom. Like the daigaku, the compound was empty. However, unlike the classroom building we left behind us, at the athletic center there was a sense of anticipation, as if it was just waiting for its moment to come.

Technically, the Center wasn’t open yet. The few entrances to the compound from the road were blocked off. However, there was no fence surrounding the center, so one could easily walk through it by cutting across the grass. We were counting on that, for our path would lead us to a ravine at the far end of the center, a walk that was easily a mile.

We past the gymnasium, a giant dome that made me think of the Epcot Center, sucked into the earth only to rise halfway out of the ground on the other side of the world. Still, rather than entering the compound here, we kept following the road since it was a smoother route. The roads inside the compound were a bit of a maze.

We had long left sight of the daigaku campus, but the athletic center continued to stretch along the roadside. The road was more like a boulevard, with a row of trees between the lanes of traffic. Along each side of the road was a sidewalk. We walked on the sidewalk on the right side, with the athletic center on our right and the woods beside the daigaku on our left.

We were like walking shadows, dressed all in black. We could have vanished in the night if the street wasn’t as well lit as it was. I was still in a tank top, despite the fact that it was October. Most of the students were complaining about it being cold (Southerners!), but to me it felt more like late summer than autumn. It didn’t look like autumn either—the area was surrounded by cedar trees so there was very little kouyou--fall colors. I had a flannel tied around my waist, but the slight chill in the air felt refreshing.

James and I walked without talking, each of us content in our own thoughts. Perhaps because we weren’t talking we were able to hear the revving of car engines, fast approaching behind us.

James paled. “Get off the road! Hurry! It’s the bousouzoku!”

We ran off the road and across the grass into one of the parking lots in the Center. We hadn’t gotten very far off the road when the gang sped past us. At least twenty cars were in a line, led by a white sports car, the leader of the gang.

I shivered. There was something horrible about that car, something very wrong. There were no reasons I could give words to, but just a feeling in the pit of my stomach. I did not want to meet that guy face-to-face.

“Shit!” James cursed. “All of them?! I’ve never seen more than 3 or 4 of them out at one time. Something big must be going down tonight.”

Down in the city, there were motorcycle gangs. But in the northern countryside, where the roads were wider and there was greater space, the rich punks had car-gangs. As far as I had heard, they just drove around late at night. I had often heard them racing down the near-by roads. But hearing them while I was safely in my room was vastly different from coming across them late at night beside the road.

“The center is blocked off. They won’t be able to get in with their cars. And by the time we are coming back from the ravine, they’ll be gone,” James said, as much to convince himself as me.

I nodded, but I still couldn’t shake the sense of dread of having been seen by the gang. A large gang could easily beat up, or worse, two lone gaijin—foreigners.

We were getting near the far end of the compound when we heard it; the car racing was in front of us.

“How the hell did they get in the Center?!” There was only one road next to the Center, and that was the one we had left behind. Every single entrance to the compound was blocked off—a car should not have been able to get into the Center at all!

We couldn’t see them, but we could hear the revving cars. I felt like my worst fears were coming true. They were all around us. I think for a moment my heart stopped. I couldn’t breathe.

For a brief instant I was lost, clutched in an all-encompassing terror.

James pulled me back. “We’ve got to get back to campus!”

We turned around and raced back over the field towards the track center. At other times I would have said that it looked more like a coliseum, completely surrounded by spectator stands. But all that mattered to me at that moment was that it was a building, and the cars wouldn’t be able to follow us inside.

My breath was ragged as we ran up the concrete steps outside the track-coliseum. At the top of the steps we collapsed, our backs against the cold stonewall. At first I could hear nothing but my rasping breath, but after a moment I heard the footsteps.

I clutched James’ arm. He nodded. He had heard it too.

I tried to think quickly. Had they seen us come up the stairs? At any moment would they be coming around the corner beside us? Was it better to try to hide where we were now or should we try to sneak away?

The footsteps still echoed around us. It was hard to tell where they were coming from.

What should we do? What could we do?

The footsteps continued. But they didn’t seem to be getting any closer or further away. Something was strange. I looked around, straining my ears as much as I could. And then I saw it.

“It’s the flag!” I whispered to James.

“What?” James asked, not comprehending.

“It’s just the flags.” I pointed to the top of the track coliseum. “Look!”

Above us, several flags waved in the wind, slapping the flagpoles. Each time the flag slapped the pole, there was the sound of footsteps we had been hearing.

Feeling very relieved, I peered over the edge of the cement wall. I couldn’t see any cars. It had been a while since we had last heard any.

“Come on, let’s get going.”

We entered the track-coliseum, thankfully alone. I felt more secure with the high walls around us, shielding us from the maze of roads in the compound. Once we got to the other side, we would be most of the way back to campus. The terror was gone. The trace of fear remained, but it had become mostly a feeling of thrill. We didn’t run anymore.

Around us, only a few thousand empty seats witnessed our crossing of the finish line.