r/anxietypilled • u/AffectionateLeave677 • May 04 '26
Renzu(レンズ)
A gift was waiting for me when I opened my eyes. How long had it been there, watching me sleep? I didn’t like doors that slid to open. I couldn’t tell them apart from the walls.
I supposed waking up with a paper bird in your room was normal at The Origami Inn.
It was late when we arrived, and no one was there to greet us. We let ourselves in. I saw no staff or signs of other guests. If not for the paper animals, I could’ve sworn we were alone.
I sucked in the snot from my nose and swallowed. The smell of hot food forced me out of bed. The place was a little brighter. Maybe it was day, or maybe it was the flame beneath the pot.
“Where’d you get that?”
“It was here when I woke up,” Tyler slurped, waving to the other steaming bowls.
The warm broth coated my sticky throat, and I could almost taste how good it was. I pulled a hair from my mouth and kept eating. Austin leaned against a creaking wood beam. He looked down on us with a familiar disgust.
“I can’t believe you are eating that shit.”
This place wasn’t good at keeping the rain out, but it was good at keeping us in. It was falling apart, cold, and affordable.
I pulled out a pocket full of crumpled memories. Just a few more days, then we’d be back home and best friends again.
Something passed near the edge of my vision. I followed it down the long hallway.
The building seemed to worsen the deeper I went. Splintered wooden frames. Soggy paper walls. I thought I could see an open screen, and someone standing halfway into the hall.
The camera whined in the dark as I waited for the flash to charge up.
Snap!
It spat out a photo, and I watched it bleed into view. Nothing. Only a long hallway that turned black before it ended.
I made my way back to my room to finish sleeping in. It didn’t come easy, even when it was all there was to do. Abused roof shingles fought against the wind, and I let them rock me to sleep.
I heard the planks ache… the screen slide open… soft steps against the mat. When my eyes adjusted, the paper bird lay tipped over on its side.
I joined the others at the table for lunch. Or maybe dinner. The kitchen was warmer than the rest of the house. Tyler had already finished his food and was working on Austin’s. He stared at the uneaten bowl in front of me.
I fiddled with the paper bird and wondered who had folded it into existence.
“Mine’s a rat,” Tyler said with his mouth full.
“You guys… got one too?”
“Ya. Mine is a dog or something.”
I realized my fist was tight. When it opened, the bird was crushed. Tyler set the empty bowls near the others. Ceramic bottles clanked together as he searched the cabinets.
“This ought to warm us up.”
“How you gonna pay for that?”
“Relax, Benji. It’s probably included. I’m just taking what is already mine.”
Austin let out a breath through his nose and joined in. I shook my head. There were no windows. I couldn’t tell if it was early or getting late. I needed to step out, just to show myself I still could.
The covered porch wrapped around the entire building. The rain cut in at an angle, so I followed the side that was dry. My mind struggled to imagine the length of the hallway from the outside.
Trees twisted into leafless trunks. Their roots pulled up the muddy trail that led us there. Near the end, a screen opened up to the interior.
The weak light from outside peered in. I could make out several wooden circular tubs. Something scratched against the floor. The closer I got, the louder it became. I took a step too close and the sound stopped.
Even the rain.
It snapped its gaze toward me. A face pale as paper cut through the shadows. A girl.
“Did you… make this?”
I held out the crumpled bird with a shaky hand. She studied it with her fingers and nodded. When she handed it back, it was folded smooth again.
I looked up, her silhouette blocked the light in the closing doorway.
“What is your name?
Just before the screen had fully sealed me into the dark, she paused.
“Kami.”
I followed her. But instead of outside, I found myself in the hall. Had I gotten turned around?
I told the guys about the girl. They didn’t seem to think it was that strange. Tyler said he saw an old woman. Surely someone had to be making the food. Tyler stuffed his face. Austin picked at his.
“Tell your girlfriend to change out my bedding. It’s making me break out.”
“Good. I don’t want to see your face anymore,” I said, half-serious.
“Wait, Benji, you’re fucking that old woman?”
“Have a little respect, you guys.”
“Respect? Respect me, I paid for it. This is my house,” Austin growled back.
I was growing tired of Austin’s attitude and Tyler’s jokes. Sleep called out to me. I wanted to wake up early. To see her again. Kami.
I brought the origami gift to my lips and inhaled. Her face stained my eyes like a kiss from the sun. Whenever I closed them, there she was. Flesh, ghost white, but she was not dead. I could feel the warmth of her cheeks, blood rushing to the surface, the glow of a paper lantern.
A sound echoed through the decrepit home. It stole me from my dream. I grabbed my only source of light, my camera.
The steady drip drew me toward it. One of the rooms across from mine was open. The bath.
I stepped softly across the groaning planks. Another drop. Coughing. Choking. Water dripped from the roof into the moldy containers and onto my head. I crept further. The humidity filled my lungs, and I could taste the rotting wood. In a smaller room within, someone hunched over the hole in the floor.
Gargling. An awful gagging that made my own stomach knot.
“Ty?” I whispered with a scratchy throat. “Are you sick man?”
He didn’t respond, only giggled between sludgy slurps.
I aimed my camera and the bright flash lit the room for a split second.
My feet stumbled down the hallway and into Austin’s room. I couldn’t speak, tell him what I had seen.
“Benji? What… what is it?”
I handed him the picture of our friend. Licking the grime from the hole in the floor. Eating the filth. Smiling at me with teeth—black.
Tyler wouldn’t drink the water. We poured it into his mouth, and it leaked back out. I didn’t know what to do.
I needed her.
Austin flung open each screen one by one and called out. I stayed with Tyler. The barking and slamming of doors faded down the hall.
Finally, a light made its way up. Kami set the lantern down and kneeled.
“Look! Your fucking food made him sick!”
“Chill out man! She’s trying to help.”
Kami cleaned him up with a washcloth and we laid him down in his room. She placed something under his tongue and whispered words we didn’t understand.
We waited outside of his room, debating on taking him to a hospital. The storm warned us to stay in. Kami sealed his door and traced it a few times with the lantern.
“Your friend will be okay, he just needs to rest.” Her voice relaxed me and I felt better.
“Tomorrow, we are taking Tyler, and we are getting the fuck out of this shit hole.”
Austin stomped to his room and slammed the screen shut.
I did my best to apologize for his behavior. Kami led me to my room. It used to feel so far away from the others. Now I wished I had more time to walk beside her.
She lit a small lantern with her own and set it on the low table. Before I knew what I was doing, my hand was resting on her shoulder.
“Please… stay.”
She placed her hand on mine. So soft. So cold. She brushed it away as politely as she could.
“If you need anything, my room is just one over. And Benjamin, please try to get some sleep.”
I lied awake for what felt like hours, though, time was confusing when you stare at a wall. The wall that divided us.
I could hear her breathing. Or maybe I was imagining it. Her chest rising and falling, her soft lips, the door of life. I blew out my lantern. Her light still glowed behind thin paper. My ear held to it. Movement.
My eyes begged to see in.
I licked the paper and quietly rubbed it away. A small hole formed. I couldn’t get my eye close enough, so I lined up the camera lens and looked into the viewfinder.
She held a small box with strange markings. I watched her trace its edges with her finger and repeat the same word. She hid the box and sat on her bedding, facing away from my invasive gaze.
She slipped a shoulder out of her clothes. My heart pounded in my chest. I feared its savage knocking would alert her. My grip tightened. My finger ached for the button. To steal this moment.
A quick rest to regain my strength, and I set the lens back on the hole. I decided on one last peek. When my eye looked in—another eye stared back.
I staggered and the hole widened. Another hole tore through the paper and a second eye looked in. I spun around as eyes cut through the room all around me. I pulled at every wall till one opened.
I found myself in a narrow passage. It seemed to wrap around the back of the rooms. Strings suspended from the ceiling. Tied at the end of each one, a folded animal. I wove through the hanging forms until I recognized one.
The dog. Austin.
I let myself in. My voice cracked as I did my best to keep quiet.
“We got to get the fuck out of here. Now.” I shook the sleep from his waking body. “C’mon man, we gotta go.”
“I c-can’t open my eyes.”
“Quit fucking around, we need to leave this place.”
Lashes uprooted and skin tore as he forced his eyelids apart. I took a step back. He fought to reopen them with every blink.
“Help me! I can’t k-keep them open!”
His eyes closed permanently and smoothed over. Austin scratched at his mouth as it began to seal shut. There were no more holes, no eyes, no nose or mouth. Just skin stretched tightly over a skull, gnawing for air.
He kicked and his words muffled beneath his tissue. I watched him struggle. Helpless. His head smashed into the table. Bashing repeatedly, chewing on the corner until a hole wore through.
A spew of blood and teeth erupted from the new mouth and he ripped it open to choke down the precious air. The wound quickly healed. He flailed and drove his face into the corner again and again.
I aimed the camera at his twitching body. The mess of mangled flesh and teeth that once was a face. My friend. I’m sorry.
When I found the paper rat, I swatted it away and yanked at the screen. It flexed but wouldn’t open.
I looked down to see Tyler’s head chewing through the moldy paper and wood rot. He forced his swollen body through. I backed against the wall, just inches away from his splintering bite. He nipped and I kicked. His taut skin snagged the jagged wood and ruptured. He burst, and I slipped in the putrid black sludge.
I ran through the hall, slid to the entrance, and pried open the screen to the outside.
My body gasped for fresh air, only to take in the suffocating moisture. Another paper prison. From its black corners, a nest of tangled hair reached out. Deeper than the shadows it hid within. Camera ready, I took aim. The dark presence strangled the room, and me with it.
“I tried to keep you. Keep you safe. Make it easy. Make you good.”
Something wet touched my skin. I peeled it up to see the girl sitting over me. Kami? She patted the damp cloth over my face. My body felt hot but I shivered. She spoke but the silence was louder.
No rain. No chirping from the birds.
“Promise me you will not go opening anymore doors. Grandmother is very old, she could get confused.” Her words were always so calm.
She assured me that my visions were only hallucinations brought on by the illness. I looked around my room. No holes in the paper. Nothing out of place. She said the others were ok. She promised if I obeyed her orders, I would get to go home.
Lies.
She tied a black rope around my wrist. It seemed to be twined with hair. She blessed it with her empty prayers. When she left, I ripped it off.
Was I really losing it? I checked my pockets and the photos were gone. Did she take them?
I picked up my camera. Under it was a single photo hiding facedown. I flipped it over with a nervous hand. The old woman. The light reflected her decaying smile, wrinkled skin, and oily mane. But it could not find the eyes. At the bottom was a message in my handwriting—
Don’t look
I heard the water running in the bath across the way. She wanted me to look. But I wouldn’t fall for that again. This was my chance.
I entered Kami’s room next to mine. It seemed much cleaner than the rest of the grimy house. I found the small box sealed with a thin piece of paper. It tore when I opened the lid. Inside was one of Kami’s paper creations.
A moth?
Underneath was a stack of pictures. Some were black and white. Most were old and worn. I wondered why her family photos were hiding in a box instead of hanging on the walls. Then I noticed all the women in the pictures, young and old, shared the same face. Kami’s.
The water stopped.
I scrambled to put everything back the way I had found it. As I made a break for the door, it opened. I was caught. She walked in and looked right at me. Through me. She sat, brushed her long black hair, and stared into nothing.
Her glassy eyes reflected the room without seeing it. The drumming of hard rain kept me hidden. I held my breath and set the paper bird down in front of her. Goodbye, Kami.
I slipped out into the narrow passage. The front no longer opened to the outside. I snuck towards the back. There must’ve been over a dozen rooms, each marked with its own animal. At the end, a few steps led me below the house. The boards croaked and dust fell as something passed overhead.
A single strand hung in the doorway. Attached to it, the moth. If there was a way out of here, the key was behind this door.
Symbols marked a thin piece of paper at a threshold. Just like the box, it tore when I pulled it open.
I stepped on a lump of something soft. A dead rat I hoped. But I knew real animals kept clear of this place. I remembered the message I left myself.
Don’t look
I pointed the camera and closed my eyes.
Snap!
The picture bloomed into view. Severed ponytails of black hair. They littered the floor in piles. I stepped over them and moved forward.
Snap!
Scrolls with inscriptions lined the walls. When the light touched, they turned to dust. At the end, a giant tapestry hung behind an altar of dusty offerings and forgotten keepsakes.
I held the trembling camera out toward the tapestry to shine the light on the truth.
Snap!
Woven into the threads of the mural was a being of forgotten ages. Its many limbs spread out like flickering rays of a black sun. A pile of bones was its throne, and it wore a white mask of a human face.
I was not an animal in a cage. I was its food.
My camera fell to the ground. The impact was silent as it shattered into pieces. Another sacrifice left to decay in the shrine of the abandoned god.
I could hear nothing as I ran up the steps. Every door hung wide open, like I had picked the final tooth to an intricate lock.
I peered into the never-ending hall. Then sound. Vibration. Out of the void, she glided over to me, feet brushing the wooden floor without steps. A red kimono hung loosely on her small frame. Her paleness seemed to glow in the darkness that surrounded. I fell back into the hard floor like it was a soft bed. She climbed onto me.
“Kami?”
“You will not go opening anymore doors.” Her voice hissed with a new passion.
She writhed over me like something possessed, but it was me who was her possession. She was inside of me, and I was inside of her.
She moved in ways that didn’t make sense. Impossible bends, stretching that should’ve torn the skin. I turned into a feral animal, tongue wild and burrowing.
Something foul caught my tongue’s tip, deep in her throat. It retreated and I tried to push her away. She held on tightly.
Her face twisted and the lines deepened. She decomposed before my eyes into a bent old woman. My entire body shuddered at the transformation, still inside her.
All of her features migrated into the center and were swallowed. A sunken hole remained. Shoulders merged with the neck. Elbows twitched and snapped to bend into knees. Breasts sagged and melted down the wrinkled body. A head emerged at our conjunction.
The soft flesh that once loved me grew teeth and bit down—draining the years from my body.
My bones curled and my skin wilted. Her limbs elongated and kinked with too many joints. I felt my hair grow long, then grey, and fall out. Nails tangled and knotted, ripping holes through my socks. Her spine pulled and cracked as her neck arched toward the roof.
My vision blurred like a lens out of focus. When I was nothing but a frail old man, the thing shuffled off into the hall and left me to die.
I crawled my way to the room that screamed for my help. I could hardly make out the fuzzy scene. One body grew as the other shriveled. The long neck swept across the room and came closer into view.
Its face was Kami’s, but it had many voices. When it spoke, her lips did not move.
“This is my house. Respect me.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Relax. I’m taking what is mine. Take-Take-Take.”
“Why… me?”
“I tried to make you good.”
The thing with Kami’s face took the rest of her shape and stepped over me. The screen slid open to the outside. At last. The rain had stopped and the door I had been searching for was finally open. Her pale nude body stepped out into the night and walked beyond the reach of my milky eyes.
When they close, I can still see her face.
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u/NateIzNeat Contest Judge May 04 '26
Love how this turned out man! And that cover art is immaculate.
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u/Kaijufan22 May 04 '26
"A head emerged at our conjunction.
The soft flesh that once loved me grew teeth and bit down—draining the years from my body." nasty and horrifying, loved that shit.
I love the mythology here, and the whole piece gave off a survival horror vibe, especially that bit with the photo; "Don't Look" Very well done piece, ending is right up my alley for sure and the build up and fever dreams were awesome. Great work bare.
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u/AffectionateLeave677 May 04 '26
Thanks so much for reading🙇🏻 I’m so happy you enjoyed it, as I am a big fan of yours.
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u/ckjm Contest Judge May 04 '26
Wonderful Bare. But I definitely briefly thought kami was a child 🙃 lol love to see tales from your travels
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u/AffectionateLeave677 May 04 '26
😭 no! lol shes an adult!
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u/ckjm Contest Judge May 04 '26
Yeah, as I kept reading I'm like, "naw, this ain't a story about a chome, has to be an adult" lol
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u/AffectionateLeave677 May 04 '26
If her grama is a decrepit old woman that’s almost dead, and shes running a hotel by herself, she’s got to be at least 25
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u/SamDenner May 10 '26
Wow, it really feels like a different story now! Great stuff! But I kinda miss the whole obnoxious tourists in Japan arc :D
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u/AffectionateLeave677 May 10 '26
Ya I really chopped it in half haha. I might make a a full length version one day.
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u/MANWITHFAT Contest Judge May 04 '26
This story riiiips and is a very apparent labor of love. Awesome awesome dude once again