Silent Screaming Face

by Ben Stevens

  Hands that suddenly felt like ice dropped the handbag, as Caroline Dawes sharply turned her head to where the man was seated.

  But she was alone on the log.

  The Bar

  I’d been living in Japan for almost a year. I liked it quite a lot. Nagashima (the city where I was based) was not too large, and there was a good mix of modern and ancient Japan existing almost together. By which I mean you could visit some temples and such in the morning, and then for lunch walk the short distance to an amazing sushi restaurant that was on top of a futuristic-looking shopping arcade.

  I’d been sent to Japan by my company, even though I knew next to nothing about this country and certainly didn’t speak the language. But my Japanese staff all spoke fluent English, and I was assigned an interpreter when this was needed, so I got by perfectly well using only the most basic words such as konnichiwa and arigatou (‘good afternoon’ and ‘thank you’).

  Like I say, my staff all spoke fluent English, and we got on well. In fact I became quite good friends with one man in particular – Akira Fukuyama. We often went drinking on a Friday evening after work, visiting a number of bars in Nagasahima’s large ‘pleasure area’ (as it was called in samurai times), which basically consists of almost countless places to eat and drink – and a red-light district.

  Well, what pleasures the red-light district had to offer I’m proud to say I never bothered finding out. But the bars were fantastic, open to very late and full of a fascinating array of people – foreign and Japanese. You could go in alone, and still soon be having an interesting conversation with someone. It was a great way to relax and unwind after a hard week’s work.

  But, usually, I was not alone. Akira and I were drinking partners. He was married and had two children (I’m still single), but his wife allowed him to stay out as late as he pleased on a Friday night. So we’d visit some bars, get something to eat, and just have a good time.

  I’d had to bail out on a Friday evening three weeks before. Came down with a bad cold and had to go home early. Spent the weekend in bed. I got the phone-call on a Sunday evening, when I was starting to feel a little better.

  It was the police, asking if I knew anything about Akira Fukuyama-san’s whereabouts. (I was called by an English-speaking detective.)

  He’d gone out that Friday evening by himself. He’d been seen in a few bars and then… Well, basically it was like he’d vanished off the face of the Earth.

  They were looking for him still. There was not a trace of information concerning his current whereabouts.

  So come the end of the week, I decided to go out by myself. I went into Nagashima’s ‘entertainment district’, passing the usual groups of young Chinese women who offered me and any other males they could see a ‘massage’. I visited a couple of bars but found that this evening, for whatever reason, they weren’t that lively.

  I went back outside, walking along some of the narrow streets that cut through the entertainment district. It’s almost like a maze; stray too far into Nagashima’s pleasure area and you can get hopelessly lost…

  There were groups of Japanese businessmen –salaryman, as they’re called here – and also a number of foreigners including several American servicemen on leave from the nearby military base.

  As was usual, a number of attractive Japanese women were stood along the streets, handing out leaflets and trying to get any passing male to accompany them to a ‘snack bar’. This is a place where you sit with female company and get your drinks poured, your cigarettes lit and your ego stroked – all at a price, naturally. Generally speaking, I tended to avoid snack bars. I liked the plain-old ‘standing’ bars best of all.

  But this evening, I found myself captivated by one of the women whose job it was to try and attract custom. She was young – certainly still in her early-twenties – and so slender. Her glossy black hair flowed down almost to her waist – and when she looked at me and smiled, I felt something melt inside.

  It was like something came over me. I walked over to her and said, ‘Konbanwa.’ (‘Good evening’.)

  ‘Would you like to come with me to a special place?’ she said in English. Her voice was low and sultry; that ‘melting feeling’ I had inside only intensified.

  ‘Yes, I would,’ I returned simply. Surprisingly, she took hold of my hand, and we began to walk. I kept turning my head to look at her, and when she met my gaze she gave me that smile that seemed to say: If you’re lucky, I’ll give you an experience that you’ve never had with any other woman…

  Yes, even if I had to pay for it (something I’d certainly never done before), I wanted to sleep with this woman. More than anything. I was bewitched by her slender beauty and… Something else; something almost indefinable that lay in her sparkling eyes and that secret smile.

  We walked deeper into the entertainment district. Further than I’d ever gone before. Countless small bars and neon signs everywhere. But then the streets seemed to get even narrower and the signs started to thin out. Darker. Much less busy with people now. I’d absolutely no idea where we were; I was entirely dependent on this woman to lead me.

  For some reason, I felt the first small prick of fear in my belly.

  ‘Where are we going?’ I asked the woman, who was continuing to grasp my hand with a strength that was surprising, given her slight build. She gave me that slight, secret smile again, exposing teeth that were so white.

  ‘We’ll be there soon,’ she said.

  The street lighting now was sporadic. Many of the buildings we passed lay in darkness. Then something made me look up at one of the rooftops. Out of the corner of my eye, just for a split-second, I thought I’d seen something dart along the roof, moving at an incredible speed before it again quickly concealed itself from view…

  Some sort of animal? And yet the impression I’d got from this briefest of glances had been of a… Well, human shape. But no human could move at such a speed… I must have been mistaken…

  I tried to take my hand out of the woman’s grasp, but her grip was like steel.

  ‘Hey, you know what, I think I’d better head back,’ I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

  She smiled at me. A flash of white teeth that I now realized were strangely sharp. Funny how I’d not noticed that before.

  ‘But we’re almost there… and your friend wants to see you again,’ she said, in a voice which now caused a shiver to shoot down my spine.

  ‘My… friend?’ I said incredulously. ‘What are you talking about – my friend?’

  ‘Why don’t you see for yourself?’ she replied, suddenly leading the both of us into a darkened doorway. Then all at once we were in a small bar with a couple of tables and a counter.

  There was only one other customer there; a man in a suit who was sat hunched on one of the seats at the bar, his back towards me. The woman working behind the bar smiled at me as I entered, her brilliantly white teeth flashing. She was young, too, and had the same flowing, supremely ‘glossy’-looking black hair that went down almost to her waist.

  There were a couple of low-lights, that was all. I instinctively looked back, as though preparing for my escape from this strange place, but behind me was just an impenetrable blackness. I couldn’t even see the doorway we’d passed through, although it had been only a couple of seconds before…

  The man sat at the bar turned to look at me, and I gave a gasp of surprise – no, shock. It was my missing friend, Akira Fukuyama. He looked strangely younger than I remembered, his eyes gleaming and oddly yellow as he stared at me. Still the woman was holding my hand; I tried to tear it away as Akira slowly rose from his seat and began advancing towards me, but it was hopeless…

  ‘He’s been waiting for you,’ said the woman who’d brought me here, her smile very wide now, exposing fanged incisors. ‘We all have.’

  ‘Hello, Bob,’ said Akira, his eyes strangely glowing, his teeth also sharp and pointed. His voice had changed considerably; now it was like a winter wind blowing through
dead leaves. Instantly I felt my bowels loosen. The woman previously stood behind the bar began to come round. She was also grinning. Three sets of glowing eyes in the near-darkness, and the flashing white of those teeth…

  I tried to back away, but the woman held my hand so tightly. She started moving her mouth up to my neck. Akira and the other woman were also very near me, now.

  I was trapped…

  ‘You’ll like it here… after,’ said Akira. ‘It’s not so bad, once you get used to it…’

  ‘Don’t…’ I said, my voice a barely-audible whisper. ‘Please don’t…’

  They fell on me – and as the sucking started, I gave my first scream.

  By the same author – ‘I, Hell’

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