A Winter of Ghosts Read Online Free Page A

did not believe in them anymore. They were kept from vanishingentirely by legends and songs and plays, but most did not have the strength tomanifest in the real world anymore.
    The combination of Akane'smurder and Sakura's grief over her death, and an act of pure happenstance — or fate, if such a thing was to be believed — had been enough to stir thedemon Kyuketsuki. Kara and her friends had stopped the demon and driven it fromthe world, but not before it had cursed them.
    Little remains in the worldnow of the darkness of ancient days. . but what there is will come to you,and to this place. All the evil of the ages will plague you, until my thirstfor vengeance is sated.
    Kara shuddered at the memory,the words burned into her mind. There might not be many supernatural evils lefton Earth, but Kyuketsuki had marked them all for death. For months, nothing hadgone wrong. Nothing strange had occurred. And then students had begun todisappear. A new demon, the Hannya, had possessed Miss Aritomo and nearlykilled them all.
    They had destroyed the Hannya,but not before it had confirmed that the curse had drawn it to them. If therewere other ancient evils still strong enough to manifest in Japan, they mightappear at any time.
    Kara and her friends knew this,but they still had lives to lead.
    "So what was it that youwanted to talk to us about?" Sakura asked as Kara set their cups in frontof them and went to get the teapot.
    "Well," Kara said,excitement dispelling the shadows from her mind. "My dad and I areplanning to go home for a visit at the end of winter term, before the newschool year starts."
    "You're going to be gonethe whole time?" Miho asked, her disappointment obvious.
    Sakura rolled her eyes. "You'renot listening. It's great news! That means they're coming back for next year!"
    Miho's mouth dropped open andthen she clapped her hands like a little girl. "I wasn't thinking. That isgreat. That's wonderful!"
    "Hey, I couldn't pass upthe chance to be seniors with you two," Kara said as she poured their tea."But there's more. I talked to my father about it, and he agreed. If youcan get your families to pay for plane tickets, you can come with us."
    This resulted in an eruption ofbabble, some of it so fast that Kara could not translate, as the girlsspeculated on whether or not their parents would let them go, and if they wouldbe willing to pay for airfare. Sakura felt fairly certain she would be able togo, but Miho seemed less sure. Still, they started making plans about all ofthe things they would do and see if their parents could be persuaded.
    The shadows had been driven backfor all of them, at least for a while.
     
    The house Kara shared with herfather was just up the street from Monju-no-Chie school. There were times whenit still felt awkward to her, being the only gaijin girl — the onlywestern student, period — at the school, but she loved the foreignness ofthe whole experience, the challenge and constant stream of new culturalinformation that came with each day. Like any school, there were teachers thatshe liked better than others, there were mean girls and jocks and cliques, andthere was gossip galore. But she enjoyed her classes and her calligraphy club,and she had made the best friends of her life.
    Kara would not have wanted tostay in Japan forever but, as much as she missed her friends back home, when ithad come time to discuss staying another year she had not hesitated a moment. Shewanted to graduate with Sakura and Miho. Her father wanted to see where hisrelationship with Miss Aritomo would lead, and Kara wondered as well.
    And then there was Hachiro.
    Growing up, she had had crusheson any number of boys, and once or twice she had thought she had fallen inlove. Now, though, something was growing inside of her that made her think thatthose other times had been just her
wishing
to be in love. Maybe thereal thing was something entirely different, not just the space between akitten and a cat but between a cat and a