Chapter 15 - Seven Months In The Veil

Shrine Bedroom. A dim bluish glow filters in from the paper window. Anastasya lays on her futon, eyes open, unmoving. Her breath is shallow.

Anastasya: “Seven months.”

Her eyes shift toward the faintly glowing ceiling, where strange marks have started to pulse at night. Her room is different now, subtly twisted from when she first started staying. The once soft walls are darker, more aged. Her blanket occasionally shifts on its own, curling around her even when she throws it off.

Anastasya: “Seven months since that night in the rain. Seven months of this… limbo.”

She sits up slowly. Her limbs are heavier than usual. Her legs wobble slightly when she stands. She opens the drawer near her bed and pulls out her hidden papers, maps, drawings, notes, coded entries in her own handwriting.

At the top of one page: “Escape Routes: Status - UNCONFIRMED.”

Anastasya: “I’m still trying. Still testing. Still hiding.”

...

Shrine Garden. Morning. The mist clings to the grass like spiderwebs. Haruki sits cross-legged on a rock, watching koi fish ripple through a shallow pond.

Haruki: “You slept longer than usual.”

Anastasya: “Couldn’t get my legs to move. They… didn’t want to leave the bed.”

Haruki: “Or the bed didn’t want to let you leave.”

He smirks, but there’s something tired in his eyes now too. They’ve both changed.

Haruki: “Seven months.”

Anastasya: “You remember?”

Haruki: “I remember everything about you.”

She rolls her eyes, walking past him.

Anastasya: “Don’t get sentimental. It’s bad for the curse.”

...

Shrine Hallways. Anastasya walks through the increasingly warped corridors. The walls seem to hum when she passes. Sometimes, the wooden floor beneath her feet feels more like flesh than wood.

She reaches the eastern wing. Hidden beneath an old offering table is a loose floorboard. She pulls it up and reveals her three documented “escape” routes.

Route One: The Cracked Basin Room

– Only accessible when the moon is waning

– Water in the basin pulses and shows visions

– Entering caused extreme fatigue, as though “parts” of her were left behind

– Feels like something is watching from the cracks

Route Two: Hidden Passage Near the Reflection Pool

– Requires a chant to be whispered

– Hallway turns completely silent while walking through

– Passage rearranged itself after second attempt

– Aurelya warned me never to go there again

Route Three: That Arch Behind the Offering Stones

– I once stepped through and came back covered in dirt

– Time felt “off” inside

– Haruki became visibly distressed when I mentioned it

– Glows faintly during certain nights, especially when she’s angry

Anastasya marks a red X next to the Hidden Passage but leaves it uncrossed.

Anastasya: “That one’s… aware. Like it shifts to trap you. But it didn’t kill me. Yet.”

...

Evening. She stands at the barrier between the shrine and the outside. Her hand reaches out and again there’s resistance.

It’s like her body’s forgotten how to leave.

When she finally does make it out, it’s with a scream stuck in her throat and a stumble into the early morning air.

...

Anastasya’s House. She sneaks in, same as every morning. But her mother doesn’t greet her anymore, she always “misses” her in the morning now. Like she’s becoming harder to perceive.

Anastasya: “They can’t see me properly anymore. It’s fading.”

...

School Library. Noon. Anastasya flips through ancient books on local folklore, spirits, cursed places, shrine deities. Nothing. No mention of the shrine she knows so well. It’s like it doesn’t exist in any written record.

She glares at a book titled “Pathways of the Forgotten Kami.”

Anastasya: “Useless.”

Tanya walks over.

Tanya: “Studying for a test that doesn’t exist?”

Anastasya: “Something like that.”

Tanya: “You’re weird lately. You okay?”

Anastasya gives a small, too-sharp smile.

Anastasya: “I’m just tired of being awake.”

...

Shrine Bedroom. Night.

She returns again, her feet blistered from pushing through resistance, her hair full of leaves. Aurelya waits at the door with tea.

Aurelya: “You shouldn’t push yourself.”