tea.”
We unrolled the map so we could check our progress.
Reuben blinked. “Now where did that come from?”
A glimmering green line had appeared to the left of the first track. The butterfly pulsed meaningfully over the new road.
I stared at it. “How come it didn’t show up till now?”
“I have no idea,” Reuben admitted. “But as you see, the butterfly has spoken. A more useful question might be, are we up for this?”
“Totally!” I said brightly. “I want to go back to school and tell everyone we walked the Demon Road all the way to the Palace of Endless Night!”
“Psst,” I added in a whisper. “That was my angel talking before. My legs are pure jelly, how about yours?”
“Pure and utter jelly!” he admitted.
“We’ll do it on three!” I told him. “One, two, THREE.”
We both made a wild synchronised leap to the left.
We’d been walking through a summer world of birds and flowers and sweet-earth smells; old-time Japan at its sunny best. The instant we set foot on the Demon Road, this changed. It was the same landscape, yet now it felt hideous and ominous. Even the air was hideous - heavy and clammy, making it hard to breathe. And the chirping of summer insects that I had barely noticed previously, now sounded like a v. v. disturbing track on one of Brice’s Astral Garbage CDs.
You know on a sunny day, when a cloud unexpectedly covers the sun, how all the world’s colours suddenly look deeply wrong? It was like that. Even the shrines felt wrong, with icky dark stains splattered on nearby tree roots and surrounding stones.
I could feel myself getting more and more twitchy. When absolutely everything feels creepy, it’s hard to know if something’s normal creepy, or, you know, creepy. All at once everything, even the Astral Garbage insects, went silent. At the same moment I realised the sun was starting to set.
Was I tempted to turn back? Duh! Was I ever!! But we had come to save Tsubomi, so we just kept going.
In the fading light, the Demon Road had acquired a green glimmer that made me think of poisonous slime. Maybe it was psychological, but I was suddenly aware of an icky gluey sensation under my bare tootsies.
We’d been climbing steadily for over an hour. It was inevitable we’d have to go down at some point. Suddenly the slime trail veered off sharply downhill through a most unpleasant-looking grove of trees.
“I guess it’s onwards and downwards to the Palace of Unending Night then?” I said bravely.
“I think you’ll find that’s actually the Palace of Endless Night, Beeby,” Reubs corrected, taking off a girl from our class.
“Imagine having to deliver parcels to that address!” I giggled. “Care of The Dark Lord, Palace of Endless Night, beside the Demon Road.”
“Imagine the kind of parcels!” Reuben said darkly.
Cracking nervy jokes to hide our growing panic, we took the sinister left-hand fork.
Angels have an excellent relationship with trees as a rule. We like their vibes, they like ours. Not these trees, however. These trees had absolutely gone over to the Dark side; I’m not kidding. I twice tripped over roots that I swear hadn’t been there a second before, and don’t even get me started on the sound effects - whisperings, gibberings, mutterings, moans. It didn’t matter how fast you spun round, you could never see who or what was doing it.
“Do you think this is like some form of cosmic balance?” Reuben suggested, warily checking over his shoulder. “We’ve had the helpful spirits, now we’re meeting up with the un helpful ones.”
“Could we please talk about spirits when there’s a bit more light, please?” My voice came out abnormally high.
“Do you think demons secrete something from their glands that causes the road to glow like this, or is it like, an energy thing?” Reuben mused.
“Could we please not say the D-word, either, please!” I squeaked.
The hill was now sloping so steeply that I was getting vertigo
We unrolled the map so we could check our progress.
Reuben blinked. “Now where did that come from?”
A glimmering green line had appeared to the left of the first track. The butterfly pulsed meaningfully over the new road.
I stared at it. “How come it didn’t show up till now?”
“I have no idea,” Reuben admitted. “But as you see, the butterfly has spoken. A more useful question might be, are we up for this?”
“Totally!” I said brightly. “I want to go back to school and tell everyone we walked the Demon Road all the way to the Palace of Endless Night!”
“Psst,” I added in a whisper. “That was my angel talking before. My legs are pure jelly, how about yours?”
“Pure and utter jelly!” he admitted.
“We’ll do it on three!” I told him. “One, two, THREE.”
We both made a wild synchronised leap to the left.
We’d been walking through a summer world of birds and flowers and sweet-earth smells; old-time Japan at its sunny best. The instant we set foot on the Demon Road, this changed. It was the same landscape, yet now it felt hideous and ominous. Even the air was hideous - heavy and clammy, making it hard to breathe. And the chirping of summer insects that I had barely noticed previously, now sounded like a v. v. disturbing track on one of Brice’s Astral Garbage CDs.
You know on a sunny day, when a cloud unexpectedly covers the sun, how all the world’s colours suddenly look deeply wrong? It was like that. Even the shrines felt wrong, with icky dark stains splattered on nearby tree roots and surrounding stones.
I could feel myself getting more and more twitchy. When absolutely everything feels creepy, it’s hard to know if something’s normal creepy, or, you know, creepy. All at once everything, even the Astral Garbage insects, went silent. At the same moment I realised the sun was starting to set.
Was I tempted to turn back? Duh! Was I ever!! But we had come to save Tsubomi, so we just kept going.
In the fading light, the Demon Road had acquired a green glimmer that made me think of poisonous slime. Maybe it was psychological, but I was suddenly aware of an icky gluey sensation under my bare tootsies.
We’d been climbing steadily for over an hour. It was inevitable we’d have to go down at some point. Suddenly the slime trail veered off sharply downhill through a most unpleasant-looking grove of trees.
“I guess it’s onwards and downwards to the Palace of Unending Night then?” I said bravely.
“I think you’ll find that’s actually the Palace of Endless Night, Beeby,” Reubs corrected, taking off a girl from our class.
“Imagine having to deliver parcels to that address!” I giggled. “Care of The Dark Lord, Palace of Endless Night, beside the Demon Road.”
“Imagine the kind of parcels!” Reuben said darkly.
Cracking nervy jokes to hide our growing panic, we took the sinister left-hand fork.
Angels have an excellent relationship with trees as a rule. We like their vibes, they like ours. Not these trees, however. These trees had absolutely gone over to the Dark side; I’m not kidding. I twice tripped over roots that I swear hadn’t been there a second before, and don’t even get me started on the sound effects - whisperings, gibberings, mutterings, moans. It didn’t matter how fast you spun round, you could never see who or what was doing it.
“Do you think this is like some form of cosmic balance?” Reuben suggested, warily checking over his shoulder. “We’ve had the helpful spirits, now we’re meeting up with the un helpful ones.”
“Could we please talk about spirits when there’s a bit more light, please?” My voice came out abnormally high.
“Do you think demons secrete something from their glands that causes the road to glow like this, or is it like, an energy thing?” Reuben mused.
“Could we please not say the D-word, either, please!” I squeaked.
The hill was now sloping so steeply that I was getting vertigo
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