The steps up to the shrine shrieked in protest as Akiko stepped on them, and shifted under her feet as if they were about to give way. She reached out for the railing and looked down with a gasp, but the steps were as solid as ever. The railing, however, felt slimy, and something with too many legs scuttled over her hand. She snatched her hand back, but the railing looked the same as ever, and there was no sign of anything crawling on it.

With every step, Akiko’s legs felt heavier, and the shrine got darker. By the time she reached the veranda, it was positively gloomy, and as she looked back at the precincts, she saw them wreathed in a dark mist, more like smoke than mist, smelling like burnt plastic. She could just make out the torii, but she thought she saw other things moving in the smoke, things that moved wrongly.

Her heart was pounding and her mouth dry as she turned back to the shrine, ringing the bell, ignoring the things that seemed to fall out, bowing twice, clapping twice, the noise apparently startling things inside the shrine, and then bowing once more.

Akiko stifled a scream as she straightened up. Mr Takenaka’s body was back, hanging from the ceiling, twisting in the air. She couldn’t properly make out his face in the shadows, but it was unmistakably him. Further in, in the back the shrine, there were twin golden lights, Tamao’s eyes, and the snake moved forward into the shrine, twisting away from the hanging corpse, but keeping his eyes on Akiko.

Akiko found herself looking from the kami to the corpse and back, unable to focus on either as her heart pounded, her blood surging in her ears, deafeningly loud.

The surface of the body started to flex and writhe, and it seemed to shift, maybe flexing its fingers, or turning its head. Akiko tried to step backwards, but her feet seemed to be stuck to the floor. The motion resolved itself, maggots, hundreds of them, all a dull white, crawling out of and through the body. The stench of decay suddenly hit her, and she gagged, desperately fighting the urge to vomit.

The maggots started dropping off the corpse, landing on the stools, which immediately began decaying around them. They swarmed up the rope, into the roof of the shrine, and the rope began to thin and fray, and then it broke.

The body fell among the stools with a crash, scattering them and spraying maggots around. Some landed on Akiko, and she desperately brushed them off.

The shrine was rocked by a thunderclap, and Akiko looked up to see some of the maggots on Tamao, burrowing into his skin. As if summoned, maggots began pouring out of the corpse, flowing across the floor with incredible speed and up, onto Tamao. The kami reared up, thrashing, scattering some and crushing others, but there were too many, crawling beneath the scales, devouring the kami alive. Akiko still couldn’t move, and could only watch as Tamao collapsed to the floor.

And vanished. Akiko staggered forward as her feet were released, looking around the room. The stools were still lined up in orderly rows, and there were no corpses, but now she could feel the pollution, the kegare, all around her. She turned and ran out.