The night is still and mostly quiet, aside from the creatures that go about their lives while those who walk among the day are asleep. A noise from the distance echoes throughout the empty streets. It's the sound of footsteps; a young man is running down the street at full sprint, appearing as if he is trying to escape from something.
He turns down another street and hides behind a wall. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" He blurts out to himself, looking distraught and terrified beyond belief. He peers over the side of the wall, scanning the street to see whatever it is that he has been fleeing from.
"Come on!I know you're there; you're not going to fool me this time..." But after 10 minutes of waiting nothing comes.
"What!...Is it over?, did I make it another night" He lets out a sigh of relief and takes in a few long breaths of air. He had been holding it in, waiting for whatever it was he was running from. He turns around as to home. A cold sharp feeling pinch, coming from his abdomen suddenly comes on. His eyes fixated on the thing that caused it, right in front of his face is a very pale looking asian woman with long dark black hair. She had a vary big smile on her face from ear to ear. A smile that had been cut on her.
It looked like someone had taken a knife and cut the sides of her mouth in the shape of a smile. "No! Why? I..Imade it.. This isn't fair..." He says as she slowly pulls out the pair of scissors that she had stabbed into him as he turned.
"Please please! Don't... I don't want to die!" He pleads with her. She gazes at him with her lifeless, fish-like eyes, tilting her head to the side. What remains of her mouth begins to move as she attempts to form a smile, almost as if she finds his pleas for mercy amusing, making the grin that had been carved into her face even wider. His heart sinks into the pit of his stomach as he realizes that his pleas will not save him.
She pulls her arm all the way back, then swiftly thrusts it forward, driving the scissors deep into his abdomen, followed by another fifteen stabs in quick succession. Blood gushes from his mouth as he collapses to the floor, landing on his backside. With the last vestiges of strength he has left, he tries to claw backward with his hands while keeping his gaze fixed on her. She slowly follows him, her scissors pointed forward as she walks.
His strength wanes as he reaches a wall, fully aware that there is no way he can possibly climb it. In his current condition, he simply leans his back against it. She approaches him and kneels to meet his gaze, never breaking eye contact. Slowly, she raises a pair of scissors toward his mouth.
"Why...It...Was just a bowl of.. ramen..." He stammers, his eyes fixated on the scissors as they near his lips. She traces the outline of his lips before violently thrusting the scissors into his mouth, piercing the back of his throat. A torrent of blood pours from his mouth, staining his shirt and pants. She withdraws the scissors slightly, bringing the tip to one corner of his mouth. As she pulls her fingers apart to fully open the scissors, she slowly moves them forward until the left side of his mouth touches the end of the open blades.
Letting out one final, broad smile, she slowly brings her fingers together. Closing the scissors with a decisive SNIP, she cuts all the way through the tissue of his mouth and cheek. Everything goes dark as the streetlight above flickers and goes out. The bloodcurdling screams of the young man echo throughout the empty, dark neighborhood: SNIP! SNIP! SLAM!!
SLAM! A hand strikes the top of a table near a cash register. " I'm ready to go home already!" A young man in his early 20s, about 6 feet tall, stands there with short black hair, wearing a baseball cap and an apron emblazoned with the store's logo: Saigon Market. He yells from his workstation at checkstand 10.
"Haha!Relax,Gabe,you only have 30 minutes until closing time." A man stocking the shelves in front of checkstand 10 says to Gabe. "Screw that! I'm closing up now;no one's coming in anyway."
Gabe switches off the light at checkstand 10. "Yeah! and maybe you can get out of here beforeyou run into Saito."
He lets out a long sigh, his expression showing irritation. "Oh right, he gets all weird this time of year. something about Oban day or whatever;it's really annoying." He picks up a bottle of cleaner and sprays it on the checkstand belt.
"You know how he is. He's an old Japanese man set in his traditions from years of growing up in Japan. Cut him some slack yeah" As he wipes the belt clean with a paper towel, he sprays the monitor screen in front of him.
"I suppose." The man stocking shelves finishes pulling items from boxes designated for the aisles near Gabe's station...
"Welp looks like that's it for me here. I'm going to head down and clean the aisles near the back. See you tomorrow." Gabe tosses the crumpled up paper towel into the trash basket next to his stand. "You know it!See you later, Edgar."
They both wave to each other as Edgar walks toward the back of the store. After spending approximately 20 minutes finishing up at his station, Gabe finally closes up shop. After clocking out he grabs his jacket and heads toward the door to begin his walk home, only to be stopped by Saito. "Heading out,Gabriel, remember to be careful out there."
An old yet spry man says. Gabe lets out a tired sigh before turning to face him. "I know... You told me this last year too. And I've asked you to call me Gabe; there's no need to use my full name." Saito looks at him with a concerned expression noticing this, Gabe attempts to put him at ease. "Dont worry, old man. I'll go straight home, I promise."
Saito was slightly annoyed that the younger man wasn't taking his warning seriously. "I tell everyone this every year! Oban night is a very dangerous time to be walking about after midnight. It's the one time of year when the spirits of the dead can walk the earth."
Gabe, irritated by the old man's ramblings, found himself no longer amused by the same old spiel. "I'm aware. I'll be careful." Saito gave Gabe a worried look. "Just go straight home—no detours, understand, boy?" Gabe nodded to Saito, and with that thought in mind, he set out on his way home. He didn't take much of the old man's warning to heart; after all, he thought, (This isn't Japan.)
As Gabe walked through the parking lot toward the sidewalk, he noted how unusually empty it was. This area, typically bustling with shoppers at a popular chain mall, was surprisingly quiet, even past midnight. He didn't dwell on it too much; after all, it had been a long day, and he was tired and ready to go home and unwind.
He strolled down the familiar, dark, and empty street that greeted him every night on his trek home. Despite being a vibrant consumer location filled with numerous restaurants and stores, the area lacked adequate street lighting, which was sparsely placed. This created a dark and foreboding atmosphere that crept into his mind. He felt as though someone might be following him or watching from the treetops, with disembodied voices echoing from the many wooded areas that lined his path.
Yet, each time he looked around, he found no one there. (Your imagination is getting the best of you). Gabe often reminded himself as he walked down this path.
Just as that thought crept into his mind again, he noticed something in the distance along the dark path ahead.
An orange-red neon light pierced through the night. "That's new..." He had walked down this street toward the train station that would take him home for the past year and had never seen this before, still not convinced that it wasn't just some kind of illusion.
He continued down the street toward the light. As he got closer, the light grew brighter, expanding its area of reach. There was also a sweet, meaty smell in the air, as if someone had been cooking something; the aroma intensified the closer he approached. When he finally reached the source of the light, he saw a food cart set up next to the sidewalk, where there hadn't been one just eight hours ago on his way to work.
"What the hell! Since when has this been a thing?" Looking closer, it appeared to be a ramen food cart. Judging by the pictures of the ramen for sale displayed on the front of the cart, big red paper lanterns illuminated both ends, complemented by a large neon orange-red light featuring kanji.
A sizable bowl of ramen sat on the bar of the cart, as if waiting for someone. Everything about this setup seemed inviting and legitimate, yet... where was the owner? The bar where the bowl rested was nicely illuminated, but the back of the cart was shrouded in utter darkness. What stood out to him the most, however, was the silence in the air.
It was as if all the noise in the area had suddenly vanished. Something was very wrong. Every fiber of his being urged him to run and avoid investigating further. Deep down, he sensed that something wasn't right.
"What's wrong with me?... It couldn't hurt to just check a look, at least." Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of him, and Saito's warnings fell on deaf ears. He walked up to the cart, his heart pounding in his chest as he approached. He reached out his hand to pull back one of the three sets in front of the cart and claimed the middle one for himself.
As he sat in that chair on an empty street, the only illumination came from the glow of paper lanterns and a neon sign, casting light on the surrounding darkness. No one was in sight—only the stillness and the panic-inducing quiet of the night.
This silence was slightly alleviated by the sweet aroma wafting through the air, emanating from what lay before him on the bar: a bowl of ramen that seemed to be waiting just for him. It felt as if it had been there, anticipating his arrival, as if every choice he had made in his life had led him to this exact moment in time. This chance encounter with the mysterious food cart felt almost fated.
"Go ahead, take a bite..." A voice from the back of the cart, shrouded in darkness, encouraging him to try the enticing bowl of noodle-filled heaven. Startled by the sudden voice, a cold sweat broke out as he felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach.
He frantically scanned his surroundings to identify the source of the request. However, he didn't have to search for long, as a mysterious man emerged from the shadows at the back of the cart. Approaching the bar in front of him was a figure clad in what appeared to be an old feudal Japan-era kimono, complete with a knotted headband.
Gabe found the man's choice of attire somewhat unusual, but it was not his clothing that concerned him. Rather, it was the kimono man's unyielding and unsettling smile stretched across his face, along with his dark purplish-blue skin, which looked almost charred, as if he had just risen from a fire. It was this disconcerting appearance, particularly that smile that seemed to cut through him like a knife, that truly troubled Gabe.
It was the kind of smile that one might only encounter in nightmares—the kind you would never expect to see on a real person. Without saying a word, the man in the kimono stared at him, eager to witness him eat the bowl of ramen that he had so graciously prepared for him.
"I don't want.." Before he could fully express his disinterest, the kimono man interrupted his attempt at refusal, as if he anticipated that he would decline his offer. It was as if he could not accept no for an answer.
"Go ahead, take a bite..." voice echoing with a tone that could only be imagined in the depths of one's worst nightmares. To make matters worse, his mouth didn't even move; the voice seemed to emanate from all around him rather than from the strange man's lips.
Gabe sat there, both of them staring at each other. The kimono man's uncanny smile grew wider and more frightening as he gazed straight into Gabe's soul, penetrating past his eyes and salivating at the depths of his very being.
Without thought or will of his own, Gabe picked up the spoon from the bowl, as if his body's survival instinct had kicked into action, overriding his own control. In a desperate attempt to survive this encounter, believing that by giving the creature what it wanted—by eating the bowl of ramen—he might be allowed to leave the cart alive.
The mere thought of that realization confirmed what both he and the kimono man understood in that moment: the consequences of refusing to eat the contents of the bowl. He took the spoon in hand and began to eat as if he had not eaten anything in his life, as if he had just returned to society after being lost in the jungle for months.
Eating as if his life depended on it, because, as far as he knew, it did. Every bite of noodle and meat, every sip of broth, brought the kimono-clad man closer to the brink of ecstasy. After taking his last sip, he placed the bowl and spoon back on the bar.
The man continued to stare at him with that same unyielding smile, which felt like it lasted an eternity, though it was likely just a few moments. Then, the smile faded from his face. The moment he had sought, the ecstasy he yearned for, had passed. A conquest completed. Without breaking eye contact, his charred, grotesque hands reached out for the bowl, lifting it as a waiter would after customers had left. It was as if he were preparing the booth for another patron—or, in this case, other prey, because after all, this wasn't a restaurant.
It was a trap. This food cart, adorned with flashy lights and emitting an aromatic scent that wafted through the air, was set up to lure in unsuspecting souls with a bowl of ramen. He fell for it—hook, line, and sinker.
At that moment, the only thing he could think about was what would happen to him next. Just as he began to spiral into deeper despair, contemplating the horrors that awaited him, the silence was shattered.
The man in the kimono, who had been staring relentlessly without breaking eye contact the entire time, spoke in a spine-chilling, inorganic voice. It sounded more like a creature attempting to mimic human speech in order to blend in, yet ironically, it came across as even less human.
"We'll be back to collect the payment..." Gabe, confused by the Kimono man's statement, leans forward on the bar of the cart. "What do you mean? What payment? For the ramen??" But the Kimono man does not acknowledge his questions. The monstrous grin returns to his face as he slowly moves backward toward the rear of the food cart.
Almost hovering in appearance, he disappeared into the darkness from which he came, never to be seen again. That was it; he was free to go. "What the hell was that all about?" He wasted no time turning toward the train station and began to run as fast as he could, wanting to create as much distance as possible between himself and the mysterious food cart.
Only turning his head to look back and see the distance he had covered, he was shocked to find that the food cart had vanished, as if it had never existed. "What the hell!?" Not wanting to question any of it, he continued on to the train station, longing to go home and forget everything that had just happened. Although he might have been able to go home now, what Gabe didn't realize was the nightmares that awaited him. He would have to endure nights filled with terror, trapped in nightmares every night until the payment was received...