Free Yokai by Dave Ferraro Page A

she supposed. And it had been a mistake.
    Shaking her head at herself, she
walked up the hall to the elevator, absently stroking Tanuki’s
back. When she’d returned from the mirror world, she’d come back
different, all right. But her world had been different as well. It
had turned upside-down on her. She’d come home to find her house
ransacked, her mother missing. The work of Kagami, she was sure.
He’d probably taken her mother, or worse…whatever it took to ensure
that Yumiko returned to him when she was eighteen.
    “ See what sort of a life
you can make for yourself out there.” That
was what he’d said. And so he had taken her mother from her. And
her life had become that much harder to endure.
    She closed her eyes, ignoring the
tears that slid from her eyes.
    “ You will beg to be
mine.”

Chapter Six

    The love hotel may have been used by
Madame Mori and Yumiko for their line of work, but it was more than
that to Yumiko. Yumiko called it home, as embarrassing as that was.
On the top floor was a lone room with heated floor tiling, a small
toilet, and a kitchen area on one side. There was a small entryway
cut off from the rest of the room by a paper wall, a sliding door
permitting entry into the room. Within, there was enough space for
a queen-sized bed, a desk for her computer, and a small area for a
sofa and loveseat, facing a television. There was a small table
near the kitchen for dining, and a bathtub behind a silk screen in
the corner. It wasn’t much, but it was what Yumiko had, and she had
made it her own. One feature she liked about the room was the huge
floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed the space to fill with
sunshine during the day, and stars at night. She often found
herself staring out at the city, her face tilted up to the sun. She
couldn’t have asked for a better view.
    One thing noticeably missing from the
room were mirrors, something Yumiko gladly went without. She could
hardly look at her reflection without thinking of her fate, or of
prying eyes running over her body like greedy, unwanted hands.
Reina’s comment about Yumiko’s beauty the other day had caught her
off-guard because she never took the time to admire herself for any
length of time. She would glance in a mirror every so often, when
she was meeting with clients or going out in public, but for the
most part, she trusted her hands to do the work her eyes could not,
and she’d been doing it for so long that it was almost an art at
this point.
    Recalling the previous night, Yumiko
left her room with regret. She wanted more than anything to just
curl up in bed and read, or take a nice, long luxurious bubble
bath. But time wasn’t on her side. She had less than twelve months
before she turned eighteen, and she was reclaimed by the yokai
king, to devour for his pleasure.
    Dressed in a plain t-shirt and jeans,
Yumiko took the elevator to the basement, where she approached the
dungeon hesitantly. She hadn’t checked on Mr. Mathis during the
night as she’d planned. She’d been too caught up in her other
assignment. But as the morning sun had chased away the shadows of
night, and the full moon with it, she would see that he was safe,
and free him from his temporary prison.
    She pulled the key out of her pant
pocket and let herself in, closing it behind her quickly before
turning to assess the room.
    Everything was as she had left it. She
was half-afraid that the fox would have escaped his cage during the
night, but it seemed he had been confined to his cell without
incident. She walked over to the cage, relieved, and stopped short
when she saw Mr. Mathis’s form behind the steel bars. He was
sprawled over the floor, faced away from her, but he was completely
in the nude, his robe cut to ribbons in the corner. She turned
around quickly, blushing, but then peeked back over her shoulder.
His back was nicely-muscled, with one arm hanging back to show off
his biceps, which bulged with strength. His legs were powerful as
well,