The clock struck midnight once more. In the dead of the night, the city slept, unaware of the pulse that echoed through the empty streets—an energy that called to those who were lost, to those who wandered in the spaces between life and death. The sushi house stood as it always had, shrouded in mystery and silence. The door, now creaking open and closed with an unnatural rhythm, had seen its first true returnee.
It waited. Always.
A figure appeared in the alley, his face hidden beneath the brim of a ragged cap. His walk was sluggish, almost as though his body carried the weight of a thousand invisible burdens. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of a worn-out jacket, and his steps lacked purpose, as if he were a man drawn to something he couldn’t comprehend. He paused before the sushi house, staring at the door for an unsettling moment. His brow furrowed, but there was no hesitation. The city’s strange rhythm—the cold, silent pull—had led him here, just as it had led so many others before him.
He pushed open the door.
A bell tinkled softly above him as he entered, the faint sound of waves crashing in the background, blending with the low hum of the radio. The air inside the sushi house was heavy, thick with an ancient scent—saltwater, fish, and something older, darker, that could not be named. The low light from the paper lanterns filtered through the dust that hung in the air, casting elongated shadows across the wooden floor. The place seemed unchanged from the last time he had been here—though he couldn’t remember when that had been.
The man looked around, his heart beating with an unfamiliar urgency. His eyes scanned the empty seats, the pristine counter, the strange objects that lined the shelves. There was no sign of life, save for the faint, almost imperceptible sound of something swimming in the tank behind the counter. The water was murky and dark, hiding whatever creatures lurked beneath its surface. He shivered involuntarily, unsure of whether the feeling in his chest was anticipation or dread.
And then, he saw him. The man behind the counter, still and silent as always.
Hitoshi.
The sushi chef stood like a statue, his hands folded in front of him, his expression unreadable, his eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. The man felt a chill run down his spine as he approached the counter, though he could not explain why. There was something unnerving about the stillness of this place, the deadness that seemed to hang in the air like a fog.
"Welcome," Hitoshi spoke, his voice quiet, but the words held weight, as if they had been spoken in a place beyond time.
The visitor did not speak immediately. He simply stood there, staring at the counter, his breath shallow, unsure of what to say. His hands were still buried deep in his pockets, and his mind raced, but it was as though he were trapped in the strange aura of this place—he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t alone, even though there were no other customers in sight. Something about the space, the shadows, felt full, as if the very walls were alive with unseen presences.
Finally, his voice broke the silence, thin and broken. "I don’t belong here."
Hitoshi did not respond, but the flicker of something in his gaze—the faintest shadow of an emotion—indicated that he had heard.
The visitor shuffled closer, hesitating for only a moment before sitting down on the stool at the counter. His eyes were still glued to the tank, watching the water as the faint ripples pulsed from something unseen, something other. He swallowed hard, forcing his hands to stay still. They ached, almost as if they had been clenched for a very long time.
"You’ve come to the wrong place," he muttered to himself, though he didn’t truly believe it.
Hitoshi didn’t respond to his words. Instead, he began to prepare a plate of sushi, the knife slicing through the fish with an eerie precision that made the man’s skin crawl. The sound of it - sharp, almost unnatural - was soothing in its way, but also unsettling. As Hitoshi slid the delicate pieces of fish onto the plate, the visitor could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears, could feel the pull in his chest intensifying.
He wasn’t sure why he was here, why he had come. He didn’t even know what it was about this place that had drawn him in. The air was thick with something ancient, something forgotten. The man had been wandering the streets for days now, numb, and the same feeling had followed him - the pull toward the sushi house, the pull toward this moment.
And there it was. A small plate of sushi, placed gently before him on the counter.
The man stared at it for a long moment. The fish was vibrant, as though it had never touched the air. It gleamed with an unnatural light in the dimness of the room. It was perfect, pristine, and...wrong. There was something about it that twisted his stomach into knots. His breath caught as he stared at the plate, the strange sensation deepening inside him.
He had seen this before. He didn’t know where, but he had.
Without thinking, his hand moved, as if it had a will of its own, and he picked up a piece of the sushi. The flesh was cold, smooth. He brought it to his mouth, his body trembling, but then before he could take a bite he stopped. Something was wrong.
The room seemed colder, as if the temperature had dropped several degrees. His vision began to blur, the edges of the room bending, warping. He set the sushi back down, his hands shaking, his pulse thumping in his ears.
Why couldn’t he just eat it?
Hitoshi did not seem to notice the visitor’s hesitation. He merely continued his task of preparing the sushi, placing it in front of him, his movements fluid, deliberate.
But the visitor could not tear his eyes away from the plate. There was something about it. The fish. It called to him.
He reached out again with the chopsticks, this time without hesitation, and took a bite.
The taste exploded in his mouth, overwhelming and rich. It wasn’t the taste of the ocean, not the way he remembered. No, this was something deeper, something darker. It was the taste of decay, the taste of death, and in the moment he swallowed, it felt as though the floor beneath him had vanished. The world around him seemed to tilt, and a sudden, excruciating pain shot through his chest.
He gasped, clutching at his ribs, his vision blurring further. The room spun faster, the shadows on the walls twisting, stretching, as though they were coming alive. The tank behind Hitoshi bubbled once more, the ripples in the water intensifying, as if something was moving beneath its surface. A soft, almost imperceptible whisper emanated from the tank - low, guttural, unintelligible.
And then, with a sickening jolt, the man remembered: he was on his small fishing boat when he was caught in the storm - the waves become violent as he struggled to keep the small boat steady before it flipped over amongst the towering waves. He remembered struggling to swim back to the boat as the crashing waves carried it further and further away from him. He was drowning - he had died that day as the water pulled him below.
His chest tightened, and he gasped for breath, but there was no air. The coldness that had begun in his chest spread through his limbs like an insidious toxin. The sushi house grew darker. He looked at the large fish tank across from him, he could see the water swirling, he could feel the waves crashing around him, pulling him closer to the floor. His skin prickled, his hands went numb, and a searing pain shot through his spine.
In his desperation, he looked up at Hitoshi, his eyes wide with terror. But Hitoshi was unmoved, his expression still unreadable, as if the agony unfolding before him was nothing more than a passing moment.
And then, the visitor understood.
He wasn’t here by mistake. He wasn’t lost. He had been chosen.
The sushi house didn’t just wait for the lost to arrive. It called to the ones who were always meant to return.
And as the darkness closed in around him, the man realized with a final, overwhelming sense of clarity that there was no way out.
The sushi house had claimed him.
Copyright © 2024 BitChamp.co - All Rights Reserved.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.