Trapped

Alex crossed his fingers and took a step through the Torii gate again. As expected, he was back again on the umpteenth try, next to a very bored-looking Yata, seated on the donation box, twiddling his thumbs.

Much to his chagrin, Yata mouthed the words "told you so".

Despite his repeated efforts, every boundary from the forest to the Torii gate has locked him in an uncaged prison. Alex spotted the stairway leading to the Torii gate, yet his feet will never walk down the path beyond the gate.

Moving from Point A (the shrine) to Point B (out of the shrine), got him back to Point A, the shrine again. With no watch or his mobile phone, he could not tell time, except every minute felt like an eternity.

He tried a makeshift sun-dial, but the canopy of straggling tree branches offered limited space for the light to pass through. Dusk, afternoon, or any semblance of time was beyond him. It was definitely not night.

Was this a crazy hallucination or not? If the circumstances were real, it will drive him insane soon.

He threw a glance at Yata, who watched his every move with those hungry iridescent eyes, like a predator stalked a prey.

Ignorance is bliss and Alex wished Yata spared his fraying nerves by not boldly revealed himself as some energy-based being of spider origins from what he could make out of it.

He wanted to be home, watching telly with his parents or eating his mom's home-made cakes. Screw his university research on ancient belief systems based on archaeological evidence, which took him from time at home.

He finally realised that there were more important things than his dream of an academic career. Perhaps it wasn't too late to make amends, Alex told himself.

A loud rustling sound of leaves sent his self-preservation instinct to overdrive, causing him to move away from Yata, who ignored him in favour of kicking the leaves on the ground and watching the midges fly about.

Alex swore that the darn spider being licked his lips at a flying cicada going past.

The only solace he took from the entire situation was that Yata kept a human form. Not that of a huge, disgusting furry spider with eight protruding eyes and spindly legs.

For a second, a paranoid thought entered his head - maybe Yata intended to make him drop his guard, so at the least expected moment, Yata could pounce for the kill.

Alex narrowed his eyes at Yata, who stood up and brushed the stray leaves on his yukata.

"What?" Yata asked, then with a frown, said, "spiders are clean even if humans don't think so. Personal appearances are important to us, too."

"Uh huh," Alex mumbled, as he took a few more steps away before blurting, "Freaking Spiderman."

"Spider-Man is a mutated human. I am an energy spider in human disguise," Yata retorted and shot him a middle finger.

"Piss off then, whatever you are."

The pair of spider-like iridescent eyes blinked in feigned amusement as Yata took a step back and pointed at the two other brownish spiders on the webs along the eaves of the shrine building.

"No can do. That's my home ground there. I am stuck with you figuratively speaking. Along with my two bros there. Too bad you ain't female or we would romp on the pile of leaves here."

BROTHERS? Alex's mouth agape as he stared dumbfounded at the webs. One Yata was more than enough.

"You are lucky. If I had sisters, think of yourself as fucked and not in the manner of mating," Yata stated with a certain air of seriousness.

Alex realised he has seen no female Joro spiders around. The female version was larger and distinctive, with their colorful yellow and black striped bums.

Matured male Joro spiders can't spin webs. In fact, the male usually lived with a few large females who spun those golden webs. That much Discovery Channel taught him.

"So where did you get the webs if you can't spin them?"

"Evicted their ugly fat bums. But they are just plain ole spiders, not like us three," Yata replied with a puffed chest, revealing his vampiric-like canines in a toothy smile, which reminded Alex of the risk that could turn his insides into mush.

Maybe those legendary vampires also originated from Yata's kind. Not just bats.

"What about the female version of your kind?" Alex asked out of curiosity.

"YOU CRAZY? You won't be around. They love to feed on the energy of human souls. Suck you up and I don't mean human fetish!" Yata exclaimed. "You and I are still talking because I don't have that capability to consume your soul."

Another lecture replayed in Alex's head about the Jorogumo legends. Something about a beautiful spider spirit dragging her enthralled victims into the waterfalls of Izu in Shizuoka, and somewhere in Sendai.

He didn't believe Yata's words, although he was slightly relieved, even if it was a lie.

"I love to fluster humans. Nothing like a bunch of screaming girls tripping over themselves to get away from me when I am swinging in their faces, in my spider form." Yata looked away wistfully, as though savouring the experience.

"What are you doing, Yata?" A disembodied, deep voice spoke, catching Alex by surprise.

Yata rolled his eyes, a sign of familiarity with the unseen speaker. Alex shot a glance at the two spiders still in the webs. Was one of his brothers talking? There's already a spider in human form and a talking spider wouldn't surprise Alex.

"This fella here is interested in a female spider like the Jorogumo."

"HECK NO" Alex retorted.

A chuckle. "Two are nearby, around the river. We could introduce him."

Yata burst out laughing at Alex's horrified expression.

"You too. Double dates? Your evening will be… unforgettable."

Yata clammed up in an instant at the offer with a huge grimace on his face. Alex snickered in return while Yata lifted his finger to the lip and shook his head. Bad timing.

"Nah man, say I baby-sat him long enough. Care to take over?" Yata asked.

Babysit? Alex stared at him in disbelief. When they first met earlier, Yata tried to EAT him, or pretended to.

"Which brother of yours is speaking?" Alex asked in a hushed tone, pointing to the two spiders on the web.

"None, but don't worry, he is good fun until he kills you." Yata shrugged nonchalantly. "Then again, he really doesn't need to lift a finger in your case."

Alex shrunk back as he thought of worse spirits in Japanese legends. A Tengu? Or one of those infamous yōkai, Japanese supernatural entities, like omukade, or an Oni? Even the omukade's mortal centipede cousins inflicted an excruciating painful bite.

"Who is he?" Alex whispered to Yata.

Yata shook his head again. "Kinks aside. He doesn't like humans..."

"And you do?"

Yata licked his lips slowly, sending shivers down Alex.

"I thought you said that you didn't have that capability…"

"I could be lying. Maybe I will feast on yo…"

Before Yata could finish his sentence, he flew smacked into the pillar by an unseen force. Alex winced.

"IT WAS A JOKE!" Yata yelled out in defence to the invisible entity, rubbing his bottom.

"Yata," the same voice spoke again. "You talk too much."

Yata bit his lip as he got up, dusting the soil from his yukata.

"You look kinda half Asian, kid. Despite that visible western upbringing. Heard of the infamous nine-tailed fox?" the voice spoke.

"Isn't Tamamo-no-mae female?" Alex wondered aloud as he recalled the Japanese legends of the nine-tailed fox.

"I am NOT Tamamo-no-Mae!" the voice replied in frustration. "BAH! Why do people assume I am one of those dumb women?"

Yata rolled his eyes. "He is very sensitive over…"

"Yata."

"Ok. Ok." Yata held his hands up in surrender.

Alex slapped his own cheek in disbelief. "First a couple of snakes, then a spider like you, and now a fox spirit? I must be stuck in Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away live-action movie."

"I enjoy Studio Ghibli, but your appearance is unworthy, unlike my sheer good looking self," the disembodied voice replied bluntly, unashamed of the self praise.

"Enjoy? How do you even enjoy it?" Alex flung his arms open with a wild look in his eyes. "This place doesn't EVEN HAVE ELECTRICITY for a television!"

A scoff at his answer. "Do you think we have no human interaction? We walk amongst your kind for centuries without being discovered."

Alex pointed at Yata. "Then why is he in this shithole?"

"I'll let him answer that."

Yata went near to Alex, who took a step back. "Oh relax, do you think I am always at this…"

Yata gazed at the shrine and thought for a bit, then he scrunched his nose and said, "Hey… did you just call it a shithole? This is my HOME GROUND."

Home. Alex's face dropped at the thought of his house and parents again. Will he see them again? There were so many things he wanted to say to his parents. What about his friends? And graduate school? What he wouldn't kill to taste his mom's home made carrot cake.

"Well, it doesn't mean that home ground is always nice for everybody," the voice replied, oblivious to Alex's downtrodden expression.

Nothing made sense to Alex in this odd dimension, which trapped him like an animal in a zoo.

The overwhelming urge to question Yata about his two spider-brothers and the reason for staying in this place was great, but he bit his tongue. He wouldn't like Yata to intrude on his personal life and, likewise, it was best to keep out in kind. And now, there's a third entity - a fox, apparently.

"Some of us live in your human world on a part time basis. Mind you, my television is a big projector in a very nice big human house overlooking the sea," Yata added.

Yata made the scenario sound like a camping trip where everyone sat around a bonfire, strumming a guitar and singing kumbaya. How would these energy beings actually affect his family and friends?

"Yeah, but what do you do in the human world?" Alex asked.

"Do I answer that?" Yata asked.

"It's you whom he is asking. Not me," the other replied nonchalantly.

Yata grinned with a glint of malice in his eyes, "play with the humans."