Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination - Edogawa Rampo [31]
While gazing at him, Tokiko could not help trembling with terror. This "thing" that lay before her was indeed a living creature. He had lungs and a stomach as well as a heart. Nevertheless, he could not see anything; he could not hear anything; he could not speak a word; he had no limbs. His world was a bottomless pit of perpetual silence and boundless darkness. Who could imagine such a terrible world? With what could the feelings of a man living in that abyss be compared? Surely he must crave to shout for help at the top of his lungs. . .to see shapes, no matter how dim. . . to hear voices, even the faintest of whispers . . . to cling to something . . . to grasp. . . .
Suddenly Tokiko burst out crying with remorse over the irreparable crime she had committed. Fear and sorrow gnawing at her heart, she left her husband there and ran to the Washios in the main house: she wanted to see a human face—any face that was not deformed.
The old general listened anxiously to her long confession, made incoherent at times by fits of weeping, and when she was through he was momentarily too astounded to utter a word. After a while he said he would visit the lieutenant immediately.
As it was already dark, a lantern was prepared for the old man. He and Tokiko plodded through the grassy field toward the cottage, both silent and engrossed in their own thoughts.
When they finally reached the ill-omened room the old man looked inside and then exclaimed: "Nobody's here! Where's he gone?"
Tokiko, however, was not alarmed. "He must be in his bed," she said.
She went to the bed in the semi-gloom, but found it empty.
"No!" she cried. "He—he isn't here!"
"He couldn't have gone out," reasoned the general. "We must search the house."
After a thorough search of every nook and corner had proved quite fruitless, General Washio had to admit that his former subordinate was indeed not in the house.
Suddenly Tokiko discovered a penciled scrawl on one of the paper doors.
"Look!" she said with a puzzled frown, pointing to the scrawl. "What's this?"
They both stooped to look. After a few moments spent deciphering the almost illegible scribble, she made out the message.
"I forgive you!" it said.
Tears immediately welled in Tokiko's eyes, and she began to feel dizzy. It was evident that her husband had managed to drag his truncated body across the room, picked up a pencil from the low desk in his mouth, laboriously written the curt message, and then—
Suddenly Tokiko came alive with action.
"Quick!" she shouted, her face paling. "He may be committing suicide!"
The Washio household was quickly aroused, and soon servants came out with lanterns to search the field. Hither and thither they looked, trampling down the weeds between the main house and the cottage.
Tokiko anxiously followed old man Washio in the dim light of the lantern which he held. While she walked the words "I forgive you" kept leaping to her mind; clearly this was his answer to the message she had traced on his chest. Turning the words over and over in her mind, she came to realize that his message also meant: "I'm going to die. But do not grieve, because I have forgiven you!"
What a heartless witch she had been! In her mind's eye she could vividly see her limbless husband falling down the stairs and crawling out into the darkness. She felt that she would choke with sorrow and remorse.
After they had walked about for some time, a horrible thought struck her. Turning to the general, she ventured: "There is an old well hereabouts, isn't there?"
"Yes," he replied gravely, immediately understanding what she meant.
Both of them hurried in a new direction.
"The well should be around here, I think,"