spooky times with john constantine

[meitori]

It seemed that every major city in the world, and even many minor ones, was beginning to have their own “dark history” and “haunted city” tours. While a city as old as Kyoto was bound to have its fair share of ghost stories, a Buddhist temple did not seem to be a likely place to be haunted. However, not all temples were known to be near gates to the underworld like the Rokudo Chinnoji Temple was. Long used for funerary rites and mourning rituals, it even had special practices for the Obon Festival every summer.

Yuuta had been asked to check out some strange happenings on the temple grounds. The monks weren’t sure if there was anything to be concerned about, especially since tourists did a good job of scaring themselves, but they wanted to make sure that the wells associated with entering and returning to hell weren’t acting up. More than the spine tingles or the unusual cold wind, people were now reporting seeing creatures from mythology and folklore at an alarming rate.

Normally, Yuuta would apologize and try to avoid it, but one of the monks mentioned knowing his grandmother … and he did not want to disappoint his grandmother.

So, there he was. In a temple, alone, past sunset.

Standing in front of a well that supposedly let someone go straight to hell with the hopes that monsters and ghosts weren’t coming out of it.

“Ono no Takamura,” he muttered. “You should have sealed up the wells.”

He was already beginning to sense that something was wrong.