Consumed
Lifting the box from its resting place by the door, Yuki is greeted by the unmistakable tinkling of broken glass sliding against cardboard.
‘Shit,’ she mutters to the empty space. ‘Shit, shit shit.’
In the silence of the room, the shifting glass sounds a bit like laughter.
Sighing, she walks the box to the bar in the middle of the small room and opens it gingerly. For a moment she nurtures the dim hope that it’s only one or two wine glasses that have broken. Peering in, she groans. It’s like a graveyard for crystalware inside. Glass shards of every size litter the bottom. Yuki pokes a finger tentatively at one of few that appear whole, half expecting it to shatter at her touch. To her mild surprise, the glass survives the exam undamaged, save for a smudged fingerprint.
‘A fool’s plan,’ she hears her brother’s voice play in her head as she rescues the few survivors.
Eiji’s disapproval of her idea had been gut-wrenching, but Yuki was sure once he’d seen the wine bar’s future home with his own eyes, he’d change his mind. He’d be consumed by the place, like she was.
It was the first day of spring when Yuki had first seen the little space. It had instantly sung out to her. She usually came into the station a different way, but for some reason that day she’d ducked down the stairs and emerged in a part of Shibuya she’d never been to before.
She was drawn to it immediately. Something about the place tugged at her, beckoning her to look inside. It had clearly been abandoned for years, dust floating heavily in the few beams of light that shown in through the window. But Yuki didn’t see the gloom; she saw what it could become.
She saw wine glasses suspended in racks above the bar; wine bottles slotted into alcoves all along the back wall. She heard music playing softly as salarymen sipped different varieties and asked her to explain what they should be tasting.
She knew it was just a vision, but it seemed so real, it ached in her mind.
Yuki had been so absorbed that she hadn’t heard the man approach. He’d apologised when she jumped, smiling kindly, and offered to let her in, pulling out an ancient ring of keys.
‘A wine bar?’ He’d smiled, listing to her gush out her dream for the place. ‘That’s a lovely idea.’
Yuki had wandered about in a daze. On the far end of the bar, she found a rose, long-dead and dried out, but still lovely. A good omen, she thought. She’d agreed to rent it on the spot.
But her vivid vision from that first day began to fade almost immediately. With every step she’s taken towards turning dream into reality, things have gone wrong.
Yuki stares down at the broken glasses now before her, just one more in a long list of tiny disasters.
Eiji’s visit had been another, perhaps the worst. It had taken three weeks of pleading to convince him to take a day off and come see the bar. He arrived with a gift, a little teddy bear holding a heart which read ‘good luck,’ but things soon turned sour.
‘Shibuya’s too big a station,’ he’d chastised. ‘Everyone already has their path to get home and their favourite bar for a drink first.’
He’d wiped a hand across a grimy bar stool, wrinkling his face in disgust.
‘Don’t look at what the place is now,’ she’d begged him. ‘Picture it for what it will be, Eiji! Can’t you see it?’
‘What I see is a place that’s too small and needs too much work,’ he’d countered. ‘It’s going to swallow you whole.’
Yuki shivers remembering the feeling that crept into her when he said those words. It was as if the room itself was screaming at her to make him go away. She’d shouted that Eiji was an idiot. She’d yelled at him to leave. He had, and they hadn’t spoken in the two weeks since.
Soon after Eiji’s visit something about the place changed. It was subtly at first. Just a tiny sensation, like an ache that pulled at the edges of her mind. It was as if the small space had some sort of … need.
Yuki had pushed away the gnawing feeling, deciding she was just tired. But as the days wore on, it got worse. The bar no longer pulsed with possibility, but with something else entirely.
Now, looking again at the box of shattered wine glasses, she knows.
Tears fill her eyes as Yuki picks up the little bear from Eiji still sitting on the bar, and strokes its soft fur.
‘He’s right, isn’t he?’ She mutters aloud to the empty space. ‘You are just going to swallow me up, aren’t you?’
She listens, and in the silence hears a laugh that sounds a bit like broken glass.
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It is only the first day of summer but the air is already sticky hot as Hachiro ducks down a little stairwell into Shibuya station. Pausing, allowing his eyes to adjust from the bright sunshine outside, he sees it. Something about the place seems to call to him. He walks toward it, peering into the front window. It’s clearly abandoned, has been for years, and mostly empty save for the large wooden bar in the middle.
Hachiro breaths in sharply. The space has such… potential. Lost in his daydream, Hachiro doesn’t notice the man walk up, an ancient keyring in his hand, until he is right beside him.
‘A ramen shop?’ The man says, opening the door for Hachiro. ‘That’s a lovely idea.’
Hachiro steps inside, staring about in wonderment. He wanders to the bar, where he finds a small teddy bear, ancient and threadbare. He can only just read the words ‘good luck’ printed on the small heart it holds. Hachiro grins. A good sign, he thinks to himself.
Contest details:
Contest: NYC Midnight Flash Fiction 2016, Round 1, Challenge 2
Genre: Ghost Story
Location: A wine bar
Object: A teddy bear
Score: 10 points