A Winter of Ghosts

Chapter Five

By the time they had reached theobservatory and started down the long trail to where the bus waited in TakigamiPark below, the intensity of the storm had begun to wane. The snow slowed andthe wind began to relent at last. By the time they were halfway down, themountainside and the park below had been transformed into an idyllic winterscene. Any other day it would have been beautiful. The heart of the storm hadcome and gone, and the aftermath was white silence. But until she knew Hachiroand the others were safe, Kara could see only menace in the snow.

Her father walked beside her,grabbing her arm when she stumbled but otherwise not trying to hard to protecther. He didn't baby her, and Kara felt grateful for that. She wondered aboutfrostbite, but until they reached the heated bus there was nothing any of themcould do for themselves or for each other. They were in this together and herfather knew that.

Miho and Sakura walked ahead ofthem, accompanied by Miss Aritomo and two other teachers who had beenchaperoning the ensoku. The roommates huddled together, trying to share amodicum of body heat as they hurried down the mountain. From time to time MissAritomo glanced back at Kara and her father, worry etched into her face.

They talked very little, focusedon their descent and conserving energy. Kara's legs had started to feel likelead weights. She felt strangely sleepy, and soon the white silence around herbecame a kind of dreamlike blur.

She trudged downward, one footin front of the other, and the veil of snow thinned even more, so that soon shecould make out the bus waiting below. The others had already departed, headingback to Monju-no-Chie school. Yet now she slowed a little, staggering to astop, seeing the bus as the enemy.

"Kara, what's wrong?" her father asked.

In his eyes she saw all of thefear for her that he had been keeping bottled up during their trek. He musthave been half-frozen himself, but he took her arm to steady her and seemedabout to pick her up into his arms, as though to carry her the rest of the waydown the mountain. Love for him filled her up, but it could not drive away theterrible, icy certainty that had spread through her.

"I can't leave withoutHachiro," she said.

Miss Aritomo and the others hadhalted as well and Kara saw Miho and Sakura staring back at her in concern,though their teeth chattered and their lips had turned blue.

"Go on, Yuuka!" Kara'sfather called. "We'll be right there."

Miss Aritomo nodded andreluctantly got the rest of them moving again. Kara's father held on to her,forced her to meet his gaze.

"What are you doing, honey?The exposure you've already suffered could be dangerous. We've got to get — "

Kara searched his eyes, franticand filled with growing desperation. "Dad, I can't. I just. . I can'tleave without him. I look down at that bus and all I can think — I can'tget it out of my mind — is that if I get on board, if I let them closethe doors behind me, then I'll never see him again. He's going to die up there."

Her father held her face in hishands, his gloves rimed with half-melted snow. "No, he's not. They'regoing to find him, Kara. And it will do him no good if you end up losingfingers or toes from frostbite. The storm is already starting to slow and there'llbe a couple of hours of daylight left for people to search. . people who arebetter equipped and prepared for the elements than we are."

She took a deep breath, takingthat in, and stared at the bus waiting ominously below before meeting herfather's gaze once again.

"How does something likethis happen?" she asked. "What Mr. Yamato said about the forecast.. I mean, it was nothing, not much more than flurries at first, and then.."

Overwhelmed, Kara could notfinish the sentence.

"A squall," her fathersaid. He took her by the arm and guided her down the trail, getting her walkingagain. "I've read about freak weather before. It happens. Like 'thundersnow' and things like that. When weather fronts collide the weather is alwayswild."

As he spoke, police cars beganto pull into the parking lot of Takigami Park below, their lights spinning,reflecting off of the snow. They were followed by an ambulance and two SUVs. WhenKara saw police officers and other people start to pile out of the vehicles,relief swept over her. The snow was subsiding. Mr. Sato and Mr. Yamatowere still up there, and soon the search would expand. There might not be morethan a couple of hours before dark, but maybe that would be enough. It waspossible that they had already found Hachiro and the other boys and that noneof this would turn out to be necessary.

She turned to say as much to herfather, and saw Sora standing beyond him, perhaps fifty feet from the path. Hestood amidst a copse of cherry trees, their bare branches interwoven like aspider's web. His red jacket had turned pale, bleached of color the same waythe winter storm had turned the whole world gray, but Kara could see himclearly enough.

"Oh, my God," shesaid, a laugh bubbling out of her.

"What is it?" herfather asked.

But Kara started running, bootssinking into four inches of fresh snow. A grin spread across her face and sheglanced past Sora, searching for Hachiro and Ren, putting it all together in aninstant — they must have found some other path that led them to a placewhere they could see the bus waiting in Takigami Park and started down towardit.

"Sora!"

"Kara, wait!" herfather called.

She glanced back at him for onlyan instant, but when she looked toward the cherry grove again, Sora hadvanished. There were only the bare trees and contorted interweaving ofbranches.

All of the air went out of herin a single breath and she faltered, staggering to a stop. Suddenly she feltmore exhausted than ever. Falling to her knees in the snow, she felt all of herfear and worry overflowing, rushing out of her. Somehow it became a laugh, evenas tears began to spill down her cheeks.

She heard footsteps crunching inthe snow and a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Kara?" her fatherventured, so softly.

She wiped at her eyes and lookedup at him. "I saw Sora. He was right over there."

But there was nowhere aroundthose bare trees where anyone could have hidden themselves — even if Sorahad some reason to do so — and they were close enough now to see oneadditional detail that filled the hollow place inside Kara with dread andgrief. There were no footprints in the snow beneath the cherry trees.

"Did you see him?" sheasked.

"I was watching you,"her father said. "I'm sorry."

Kara turned to see Sakura andMiho approaching them. Miss Aritomo and the other teachers waited back on thepath, watching curiously.

"You saw Sora?"

Kara couldn't answer. Sheswallowed hard. All she could think of in that moment was the story Hachiro hadtold her about seeing Jiro's barefoot ghost on the train into Miyazu Station.

"Hey," Miho whispered,kneeling beside her in the snow, neither of them paying any attention to thedampness soaking through the knees of their pants — they couldn't feel itanymore.

"I think I saw him, too. Justfor a second," Miho went on.

Kara stared up at her, thenglanced at Sakura and her father. "He's dead."

"You don't know that,"her father said quickly, brows sternly knitted.

But she did. What she had seencould only have been a ghost. She bit her lip, took Miho's hand, and the two ofthem stood. They exchanged silent glances with Sakura and then, as one, thethree girls started back toward the path.

"Come on, Dad. I'mfreezing."

Her father followed, but she sawhim glancing back at the cherry grove, although there was no longer anythingthere to see.

All through the rest of the walkdown to Takigami Park, where they boarded the bus, Kara felt torn by warringemotions. She grieved for Sora, whom she'd liked very much, but she alsonurtured a flickering, guilty hope that Hachiro and Ren would be all right. Shehad not seen their ghosts, after all, only Sora's.

On the bus, she sat with herfather. Miho and Sakura had each other, so Kara did not feel like she was abandoningthem. Miss Aritomo busied herself with the grim business of making sure thereweren't any other students unaccounted for and then got off the bus to talkquietly with a police officer for several minutes. When she boarded again, shesat behind the driver and told him to take them home.

Kara turned to look up at herfather. "We can't leave them up there."

"We aren't. I promise you,honey. The police are heading up onto the mountain now with a bunch ofvolunteers, and more on the way. But my first responsibility is to you. Let'sget you into something warm and dry, and by then, the boys will be down offthat mountain."

Not all, shethought.

As the bus rattled out of theparking lot and back toward school, feeling began to return to her feet and herbody started to warm up at last, but inside she felt more numb than ever. Shehuddled against her father, taking comfort from the solidity of his presence. Hespoke to her with quiet strength that soothed her far more than the words hechose. Any other day she would have been embarrassed at such a display, a girlher age being so dependent upon her father, especially in Japan. But she couldnot bring herself to care.

Kara opened her eyes, jostled asthe bus went over a pothole, and was surprised to see the outline ofMonju-no-Chie school through the window. The snow had stopped falling and thesky had lightened somewhat, though cloud cover still blotted out the sun. Momentslater, they turned into the drive that ran alongside the school and led to thedormitory beyond.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked.

"Maybe for a minute or two,"her father said.

Fresh anguish filled her. "Howcould I do that? Hachiro and Ren are — "

"Kara," he replied,taking her hand and squeezing it. "Rest is good. You're not going to beany help to your friends if you're falling apart."

She took a long, shuddery breathand then nodded. "Okay. You're right."

"Honey. ."

If any sleep lingered in her,his tentative, almost secretive tone banished it. "What?"

He glanced around as though tosee who might be listening and when he spoke again, he had lowered his voice. Fora moment she thought he would speak in English, but then she realized thatdoing so might draw more attention rather than less.

"What did you see while wewere coming down the mountain?"

Kara understood what her fatherwas asking her. Once upon a time, she had been afraid to talk to him about thesupernatural things she had encountered since they had moved to Japan, fearfulthat he would think she was losing her mind. And for a time, after she had toldhim, he had believed she was making up stories as a way to interfere with hisrelationship with Miss Aritomo. It had put a wedge between them.

But all that was in the past,now. Rob Harper had seen things that he could not deny, and nearly paid theprice for that epiphany with his life. Any tension between them had been burnedaway by the danger they'd faced together. They were a team now.

None of which meant that hereally wanted to know the answer to the question he'd just asked.

"You know what I saw,"she whispered.

Something flickered in his eyes,and then he nodded. "I guess I do."

The bus's brakes screeched to ahalt. When the doors opened, Kara stood up first, stepping into the aisle. Mihoand Sakura had been sitting right behind her and both of them looked as drainedas she felt. Behind her glasses, Miho's eyes were red from crying.

They filed off one by one, thestudents gathering in small clusters in the parking lot. All but one of theother buses had already departed, the last one standing empty just a few yardsaway, the driver talking on his cell phone outside the door. He seemed agitatedand Kara noticed that he kept looking at a paint-scraped dent on the side ofthe bus, which she assumed was new. The parking lot had not been cleared ofsnow, and her feet grew cold again immediately.

"Kara," her fathersaid. As she turned to him, he pulled her into a tight hug. "We're goingto need to talk about this later, and what it might mean. But right now — "

"I know. You have to help geteveryone situated."

"And then I want to findout what's going on back at the mountain. If I can't reach Mr. Yamato, I'm suresomeone will know. Hopefully they've found the boys already, but if not, I'mgoing to go back there."

Kara looked at the dimming sky."Dad, by the time you get there, you might have an hour of daylight left."

The rest of the conversationwent unspoken, and Kara was glad. She did not want to think about the chancesof anyone surviving the night on the mountain.

"Can you stay with Sakuraand Miho for now?" he asked. "I'm sure they have something warm youcould put on. And when the teachers are free to go, Yuuka will come get you andtake you back to the house."

Kara glanced around, surprisedthat he was talking about his relationship with Miss Aritomo so openly. "Areyou sure that's — "

"It'll be fine," hepromised. "Go ahead. And make sure your phone is on. If I learn anythingat all, I'll call."

Students had been shuffling pastthem, streaming from the parking lot to the dorm. Kara thanked her father, toldhim she loved him, and then hurried over to join Sakura and Miho, who had beenwaiting for her. Miho's eyes had lost some of their redness and both girlslooked more awake than they had while getting off the bus. Sakura stamped her feetand Kara looked at them, noticing for the first time that the girl's boots weresoaked through.

"Oh, no. Are you okay?" she asked.

Sakura glanced down as thoughshe'd forgotten her feet were even there. "I can't feel them, but I'mstill standing up, so I know they still work."

"Can I stay with you guysfor a while?" Kara asked.

Miho nodded. "Of course. Besides,I think we all need to talk, don't you?"

Kara swallowed the emotion thatthreatened to well up inside of her. She nodded. "Yeah. We do."

The three girls turned andstarted up toward the dormitory together. As they approached, Kara noticed thatMai and Wakana had not entered the dorm but were waiting outside, watching themapproach. Mai wore an expectant look, but Wakana had the most awful hauntedexpression in her eyes.

"Someone wants to talk,"Sakura sniffed. Her tough-girl mask had slipped during the blizzard, but now itreturned.

Kara pushed aside her sourfeelings toward the girls and left the path, trudging through the snow to jointhem. Miho and Sakura followed and the five of them faced one another beneaththe tall windows of the dormitory.

"You saw something,"Kara said, fixing Wakana with a hard look.

Wakana flinched, frowning."How did you know? Did you see him too?"

Kara glanced at Mai, whosearrogance had completely vanished. She looked frightened, just as she had whenthey had all faced the Hannya together, and that was good. They might not befriends, but in sharing the secrets they did, they had become allies, and Maitended to be far more ordinary and human when something had scared her.

"Him?" Miho replied."You mean Sora?"

Mai frowned. "Sora? No. She. ." and then she let the words trail off, glancing at her roommate."They didn't see it."

"'It' or 'him?'"Sakura asked. "Make up your mind."

"See what?" Karaprodded, her frustration growing. She wanted to be inside, to put on warm, dryclothes, to find out what had become of Hachiro and Ren. "If you'retalking about ghosts — "

"You did see him!" Wakana said.

Sakura and Miho started talkingat the same time, still trying to make sense of what Wakana was telling them. Maihad just said they hadn't seen Sora, and if they had encountered his ghost,their reaction would have been entirely different. So if not Sora. .

"Jiro?" she asked,thinking again of Hachiro's experience on the train.

"Are you just being cruel?" Mai snapped.

Wakana seemed to wonder the samething. She wore a hurt expression as she replied. "Not Jiro. Daisuke. Isaw Daisuke."

Kara stared around at theothers, mind whirling. Jiro, Daisuke, and then Sora. The ghosts of dead boys.

"What the hell is going onaround here?" she asked.

But nobody had an answer.

Kara followed Miho and Sakurainto their dorm room, grateful to be alone with her friends. Mai and Wakanamight be linked to them because of the unnatural events that had unfolded atMonju-no-Chie School over the past few seasons, but none of them were willingto pretend that their connection to each other was anything like friendship. Karahad no interest in joining forces with them to try to figure out what was goingon, and she knew the feeling was mutual.

When she and Miho and Sakurareached the dorm, the foyer had been full of students who were awaiting pickupby their parents, most of them discussing the missing boys. Those who knew Karaand Hachiro were dating had fallen silent and watched her curiously as shepassed, as though they expected her to break down or something. She hadexpected the stairs and corridors to be quieter, with most of the boardingstudents resting or getting warm, but instead they had walked through agauntlet similar to what they had faced downstairs. They were all buzzing withnervous energy and needed to talk.

When Miho closed the door,shutting the rest of the world out, Kara let out a long sigh. She knew that sheand her friends needed to talk, but she had no interest in discussing the day — or the fate of Hachiro and the other boys — with the girls talking behindtheir hands in the common area down the hall.

Once they'd all hung their jackets,Sakura stepped out of her sodden boots and stripped off her pants. Her legswere pale and dappled with white and red splotches and she rubbed themvigorously before peeling off the rest of her clothes. In seconds she stood inonly her underpants, entirely unself-conscious about her body.

"I am going directly topajamas," she said.

"What about dinner?" Miho asked, trying not to look at her.

"I can have dinner in mypajamas."

Miho gave the tiniest shake ofher head to show that she didn't approve. Sakura ignored her, pulling on along-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms covered with some kind ofschool symbol that Kara thought came from one of the manga that Sakura loved toread. She tugged a sweatshirt on over that comfortable ensemble and then turnedto Kara.

"What do you want to wear?"

"Anything soft and dry."

Sakura started tossing clothesat her — t-shirt, sweatshirt, pajama pants — and she laughed as shesnatched them out of the air. It was good to laugh, but immediately she feltguilty, knowing the guys were still out there on the mountain.

"Pajamas," Sakurasaid, arching an eyebrow at her roommate.

Miho rolled her eyes and turnedaway from them. She had been working on her shyness for months, but some thingsshe could not change. Modest to a fault, she kept her back turned as shedisrobed and quickly pulled on dark green pants and a beige sweater. Her hairhad been made wild by the storm but she brushed it out and put a clip into it.

"You look ready to go on adate," Sakura said.

"And we look ready for anap," Kara added, as she tugged on the borrowed pajama pants.

Sakura flopped onto her bed."I would love a nap, almost as much as I would a cigarette."

The dorm rooms were all small. Twobeds, tatami mats, two tiny desks, a small futon, built in closets and amirror. Kara folded up her cold, damp clothes and put them in a pile underSakura's desk and then settled onto the futon.

Miho slid into the chair at herdesk. "So, are we going to talk about this?"

Sakura lay on her side, legspulled up beneath her. "Nap first, talk later?"

Kara frowned at her. "Sakura,how can you joke? They're still up there! Sora is — "

"You don't know that."

Miho crossed her arms, almosthugging herself. "What else are we supposed to think? Hachiro saw Jiro'sghost, Wakana saw Daisuke, and on the mountain, Kara and I both saw. . wesaw him, but he wasn't there."

A knock came at the door andthey all looked up, but for several seconds, no one made a move to answer it. Whenthe visitor knocked again and they heard a girl call "hello" from theother side of the door, Miho rose and opened it to find Reiko, from thecalligraphy club, standing in the hall.

"What's wrong?" Mihoasked.

"Nothing," Reiko said."Miss Kaneda asked me to let all of the third floor residents know thatdinner is going to be served an hour early tonight. They want to get somethinghot into us, she said."

Kara had thought she wouldn't behungry at all — a cup of tea to warm her, perhaps — but at theprospect of imminent dinner her stomach started to growl.

"Excellent," Mihoreplied. "I'm sure a meal will do us all good."

"Thank you," Karasaid.

"Some people are alreadydownstairs," Reiko added. "I'll see you all down there."

When she left, Miho closed thedoor and leaned against it, looking at Kara and Sakura. "Don't think we'rehurrying down to the cafeteria. We need to talk about this."

"I agree," Kara said.

Sakura had not moved from herfetal position on the bed. She lay there with her eyes open, but did not lookat them when she spoke.

"What are we supposed totalk about?" she asked. "Okay, there are ghosts in Miyazu City. Maybeit has something to do with Kyuketsuki's curse and maybe it doesn't. How doesthat help the boys?"

A note of despair filled Sakura'swords. Emotion she had been holding back spilled forth and she sat up, lookingfrom Miho to Kara and back again, eyes pleading. "How do we help them?"

There came yet another knock onthe door.

Sakura glared at it. "Goaway!"

"Sakura? Miho? It's MissAritomo. Is Kara there with you?"

All three girls froze. Kara feltall of the blood draining from her face and the winter chill that she thoughtshe had dispelled returned. Her pulse quickened and she jumped up from thefuton and went to open the door.

One look in Miss Aritomo's eyesand she knew that the teacher brought only pain.

"Yuuka?" Karawhispered.

Miss Aritomo glanced over hershoulder and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. Then she facedthe girls.

"The search has been calledoff until morning," Miss Aritomo said. "It is too dark in the woods,now. If the boys are not conscious, the searchers could walk right by them andnot know. At first light, they will begin again, with as many as four hundredpeople combing the mountain for any sign of Hachiro and Ren."

Kara noticed immediately whatthe woman had not said.

"And Sora?"

Miss Aritomo lowered her gaze amoment, then looked back up at them, eyes damp. "They found Sora a shorttime ago. It seems he wandered off the path and deeper into the woods duringthe height of the storm."

"He's dead," Mihosaid.

It was not a question, but MissAritomo nodded to confirm it.

"He froze to death thatquickly?" Kara asked, grief and confusion whirling inside of her. "Howcan that happen?"

"That is the question weare all asking," Miss Aritomo said. "And it's why I have come tospeak with you three, though the rest of the students will not learn the newsuntil morning. There will be no school tomorrow. Most of the teachers will beout helping with the search. But Mr. Yamato wishes to speak with you threefirst thing in the morning."

Kara glanced at her friends andthen nodded. "Of course."

"He will visit your house,Kara, to be sure that our conversation is private," Miss Aritomo said."Miho? Sakura? You are to be at the Harpers' home by nine o'clock. We willspeak of curses and of ghosts, and if this is connected to the troubles we allhad last year, we will find a way to stop it before anyone else dies."

Kara had a great deal of respectfor Yuuka, and she had grown very fond of the woman.

She only wished she couldbelieve her.