Whispers of Inunaki

Chapter 1

Rei’s fingers traced the edges of the old Inunaki Village map, its paper worn and yellowed with time. “Are you sure about this?” she asked, looking up at Kaito, her fiancé.

Kaito smiled, brushing a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. “Legends are just stories, Rei. And if we find the village, we’ll be the first to prove it exists.”

Rei wasn’t so sure. The stories about Inunaki Village weren’t just ghost tales whispered in the dark. They were warnings. Every version of the legend ended the same way—no one comes back.

But Kaito had always been fearless, and she loved that about him. Their love had started in reckless adventure—a night on a rooftop under stolen city lights, a first kiss under a sky heavy with rain. Maybe this was just another adventure.

“One night,” she said, squeezing his hand. “Then we leave.”

Chapter 2

They arrived at Inunaki Pass just as the sun dipped behind the mountains, the sky bleeding orange and red. The tunnel loomed ahead—old, crumbling, and wrong. Something about it made the air feel thicker, like stepping into a dream that wasn’t theirs.

Kaito squeezed her hand. “See? Just an abandoned tunnel. No ghosts.”

But then Rei saw the sign.

“The laws of Japan do not apply beyond this point.”

A cold shiver crawled up her spine. The stories were real.

Still, she followed Kaito through.

What waited on the other side wasn’t what she expected. The village was there. Small wooden houses with tiled roofs, frozen in time. Candles still burned in the windows.

But there were no people.

Or rather, no living ones.

Chapter 3

As they walked deeper into the village, the silence became unbearable. The air felt thick with whispers, voices just beyond hearing. The deeper they went, the more wrong the place felt.

“Kaito, we need to leave,” Rei whispered.

Then, she saw it.

A woman in a tattered kimono, standing in the doorway of a house. Her eyes were completely white. Her mouth was moving, but no sound came out.

Rei grabbed Kaito’s arm. “Did you see that?”

Kaito turned—but the woman was gone.

Then came the footsteps. Slow. Deliberate. Not just one person. Many.

Kaito pulled her into an abandoned house. “It’s just the wind,” he whispered, but Rei could feel his pulse racing.

Then a child’s voice echoed from the darkness.

“Why did you come here?”

Rei turned—and the door slammed shut on its own.

Chapter 4

Rei and Kaito ran. Through empty streets. Past houses where shadows moved without light. Past wells that whispered their names.

Then they saw it.

The Shinto shrine at the edge of the village. But instead of a place of worship, it felt like a warning. The doors were covered in claw marks. Blood stained the steps.

And then, the final horror.

A pit in the center of the shrine, so deep the bottom was swallowed in black. A pit filled with human bones.

Kaito stepped closer. “Rei… some of these bones are fresh.”

Then they heard it.

A sound that didn’t belong in the world.

A deep, gurgling laugh.

Rei turned—and saw the villagers standing behind them.

No.

Not villagers.

Corpses.

Their skin was gray and stretched too tight. Their lips were sewn shut—but their mouths still moved. They didn’t blink. They didn’t breathe.

They just watched.

Then, in one voice, they spoke without opening their mouths.

“You are part of the village now.”

Chapter 5: 

Kaito grabbed Rei’s hand. “Run!”

They sprinted back toward the tunnel, the whispers turning into screams behind them. But as they reached the tunnel entrance, Kaito stumbled.

His foot sank into the earth. The ground pulled him down like hands clawing from below.

Rei turned—eyes wide, desperate.

“Kaito!” She grabbed his arm. She pulled with everything she had.

But the village would not let him go.

His skin turned gray. His lips began to sew themselves shut. His eyes lost their light.

“Rei…” Kaito’s last whisper wasn’t human anymore.

And then, he was gone.

Chapter 6

Rei made it out of the tunnel.

She collapsed outside, gasping for air. The village was gone, swallowed by the mountain. The whispers stopped.

She was alone.

But as she turned to leave, she saw something carved into the tunnel wall.

A message.

“Kaito was never real.”

Her breath caught.

No. No, that wasn’t true. She knew Kaito. She loved him. She remembered their first kiss, their dreams, their life together.

Didn’t she?

But as she looked down at her hands, she saw something that made her blood turn to ice.

A wedding ring on her finger.

But only one.

Her fiancé had vanished from reality.

And yet, his ring was still there.

Chapter 7

Rei returned to the city.

She tried to move on. She told herself it was just trauma, just a bad dream.

Until one night, she woke up—to a sound in her apartment.

A whisper.

“Rei…”

She turned—her blood freezing in her veins.

Kaito stood in the doorway.

His skin was gray. His lips were sewn shut.

And he was smiling.

Then, the lights went out.

And the whispers never stopped.

Epilogue

They say no one ever comes back from Inunaki Village.

But sometimes… something else comes back instead.