Foreboding Feeling

It's currently night now as both Hiroto and Tanjiro are walking back up the path towards their house. As the snow crunches under their foot, Tanjiro can't help but complain quietly, "Jeez, it's late already."

"And who's fault do you think that is huh?" Hiroto says looking at this younger brother.

"Umm, well at least we sold all the charcoal left though. Haha." Tanjiro replies and laughing wearily.

Hiroto responds back, *sigh* "Well we better start hurrying up a bit more, let's just hope Mom still left some food for us to eat."

As the two continue on, a rough and gruff voice sounds out from down the ditch to their left.

"Oi, Hiroto! Tanjiro!"

The two turn and look towards the direction of the voice and seeing that it's Saburo. Saburo lives close to their house up the mountain as well. The man lives along and has sharp eyes, like those of a dead fish.

"Are you going back up the mountain?" Saburo says, leaning out of his window. "You better not. It's too dangerous at this time of night."

Hiroto looks down towards Saburo and says, "It's fine, I've got eyesight, even at night so I'll be able to see anything that comes."

"I've also got a great sense of smell, so we'll be fine on our own." Tanjiro also replies.

Saburo ignores what we said and responds back, "I'll put you both up for the night, so you'll sleep here. Come on, get back down here."

Tanjiro looks up to Hiroto, not knowing what to do. Hiroto just looks at Saburo and he can see from his eyes that the old man won't take no for an answer.

"It's fine Tanjiro, it's only a night away. We can head back first thing in the morning." Hiroto says reassuring Tanjiro.

"Good, now come in," Saburo says. "Before the demons show up."

Saburo serves Hiroto and Tanjiro some food as he heard them mentioning about hoping to eat when they got home.

As Hiroto finishes up his miso soup he places the chopsticks down and says, "Thanks for the meal" followed by Tanjiro.

As Tanjiro is drinking his tea, he askes Saburo, "Hey, Granddad Saburo. What are demons like?"

This caught Hiroto's interest as he is also curious about what they are like since Saburo warned them both about demons.

Saburo, as he is getting out the futons replies back, "Man-eating demons have always prowled the land once it gets dark. That's why you should never stroll around at night."

Hiroto thought to himself, 'Really? Man-eating demons? It must be a bedtime story parents tell their kids so that they can sleep earlier."

As Saburo finishes laying the futons out, he continues saying, "If you're done eating, go to bed. You can set off for home at first light."

Hiroto, however, notices that Saburo has extra futons laying around conveniently. "Hey, Granddad Saburo, how come you have extra futons when you live alone here?"

Saburo halts for a moment as his eyes seem to show off a say look, before recovering back to head dead fish eyes look. This didn't escape Hiroto's sight.

"I used to have a family here. Just like you two, I was going down to the village to get some food for us. However before I could go back up the mountain, a blizzard came in and I was stuck inside the village with no way up the mountain. It was too dark and the path was covered with snow for me to see. So, I waited until the next day before heading back. But when I came back, they were already gone."

Hiroto and Tanjiro both were shocked by what they heard. "Did the demons do it?" Hiroto asked?

Saburo, however, ignored him and continued smoking from his pipe.

Tanjiro laid down in his futon and asked Saburo, "These demons, they wouldn't come inside your house, would they?"

Saburo replied with his back facing the two. "Yes, they'd come in." Blowing the smoke out of his pipe, he continues. "But that's why the demon hunters are there to protect us, by slaying them." He taps the ashes out of his pipe before saying, "That's it, lights out.

Hiroto and Tanjiro can both vaguely remember, back when they were little their grandmother would sometimes tell the same stories that Saburo said, about the demons.

In his futon, Hiroto lifts his right arm up and looks at the bracelet around his wrist. 'Dad, I hope that you are still watching over us, even when you're gone. We all miss you."

*The next morning*

[Hiroto's POV]

As we both put on our empty woven baskets, we get ready to head back home after waking up.

I look back towards Saburo and tell him, "We're off now, thank you for letting us stay the night."

Saburo waves his hand casually tells us both to be careful on our way up.

As we continue up the mountain path, my eyes focus around on the surroundings. Looking at the leaves, thickets, and snow on the ground for any footprints. After what Saburo told me last night about demons I could never shake off this feeling of weariness from myself.

The sounds of crows croaking around the forest top echo throughout the forest. When walking I could see Tanjiro stop from the corner of my eye, and his nose starts twitching. Does he smell something? Tanjiro focuses more and tries to identify the smell.

*sniff sniff*

The moment he opened his eyes, I could tell from how the pupils contracted that something was wrong.

"Brother! I smell blood!" Tanjiro shouts towards me.

At that moment alarm bells start ringing in my head, the sense of dread hit me like a big avalanche. I turn back towards the path up to our house and start sprinting. Tanjiro follows behind me with erratic breathing patterns from his nervousness.

A few minutes later we both see the top of our house and the firewood stacks. Tanjiro's voice sounds out from behind me.

"Big bro, I can smell a lot of blood," he says nervously.

I narrow my eyes as I run up the path until I can get a full view of the house. And what I saw was a sight that will forever haunt me.