Shijima was a town mostly known for its meaty cuisine and feeble townsfolk, refugees from the great war that had torn nations apart. Far from the hustle and bustle of the larger cities, this town lay nestled between mountains. During the great war, people from various places sought refuge here, but now that the war had ended most of them had gone back to their own hometowns. The town had now become an abode for people who wished to start afresh. Apart from the few traders who came in to exchange their goods and the occasional curious travelers who stumbled upon the place during their exploratory journey, the town hardly ever had visitors.
The Amamiyas too had visited the town as a part of the research that Mr. Amamiya was conducting. He was a researcher of folklore. The folklore he was in search of was one that had been prevalent during the war and he had come to the town in search of the creaking manor that he had much read about. Owing to various reasons he had put off the research for years before he could finally set out in search of the mysterious building that had irked his curiosity.
However, apparently his search had been in vain for the so-called creaking manor now no longer creaked and had been locked for over a decade since its last owner passed away. It was under this circumstance that Mr. Amamiya, after carefully exchanging his thoughts with Mrs. Amamiya, decided to purchase the old manor. Having invested their funds towards the purchase of the manor, they had no choice but to shift to Shijima.
It was said that during the war plunderers often tried to sneak into the town. But as soon as any intruder stepped in, the creaking manor would start making weird sounds that would slowly echo across the whole town and continue until the intruders were pushed away by the stronger ones in the town. While this acted as an alarm system, the curious thing was that this manor had been uninhabited as far as the townsfolk knew, and even though some of them had garnered the courage to explore the manor they hardly found anything that could produce such noise. The townsfolk who had already been instilled with unusual fears due to the war had then created stories about a protective spirit. Gradually, the story about Shijima town and the creaking manor had spread around like wildfire. And this notoriety kept the invaders at bay.
As years had passed, the original residents had left the town and the present ones hardly knew the truth and so in the end, only the folklore remained without any explanation. Over the years, however, the manor had been passed around from one owner to other most of them too scared or too lazy to invest in restoring it. More the reason why the purchase of the manor house soon became the talk of the town. While the Amamiyas waited for the manor to be restored, the townsfolk had already labeled them spooky and weird.
With what little fund they had, Mr. Amamiya had managed to piece the house together without disturbing the original aesthetics. Having endured living under much harsher circumstances during their exploratory journey, the Amamiyas were more than happy to be staying in a big manor and had left much of the place untouched.
Mr. Amamiya spent his days studying the structure of the Manor and Mrs. Amamiya had started working as the Librarian in the town’s library to keep the household running. The lifestyle only added to the rumors about their unusual nature. Soon the townsfolk had collectively decided to treat the family with caution, keeping their distance, and avoiding any interaction. The Amamiyas were now in a strange predicament, they had to find a way to keep staying in the town they were so unwelcomed in.
And so it happened that almost a month or so after the Amamiyas moved into the Manor, the everyday silence of Shijima town was often disrupted by loud creaking sounds at odd times. While at first, it was too faint to notice, by and by the sounds grew louder.
The townsfolk immediately questioned the Amamiyas. But, over the years they had explored the manor well enough to know that it contained nothing that could create such loud sounds, and neither had they seen the Amamiyas possess anything of the sort. And so, the folklore about the creaking manor soon resurfaced. However, as the townsfolk started to alienate the Amamiyas a new rumor surfaced, that the Amamiyas actually came from a long line of Shamans and the spirits had been angered by the ill-treatment they had been receiving.
While the townsfolk were distrustful at first, the rumors from other towns forced them to believe in the powers that Amamiyas had. Gradually, the townsfolk started accepting the Amamiyas, and would leave offerings at their doorstep. The manor stopped creaking. And as the twist of fates would be, the once hated Amamiyas were now the revered shamans of the town.
While the mystery remained unsolved, what had really ensued was that the library building in which Mrs. Amamiya worked, housed ancient documents that the townsfolk never really understood. Mrs. Amamiya on joining the Library had taken upon herself the task of tending to the shelves that had been left unattended in the far back corner. Soon enough, she happened to stumble upon the blueprints of the city while reorganizing the books. Smart woman as she was, she had managed to sneak it out and now it was in the possession of Mr. Amamiya.
Mr. Amamiya’s understanding of the blueprints has soon taken him underground through a hidden trapdoor in the manor grounds. It was a tiny underground room with various pipe-like structures running across the ceiling in it stood the funniest of machines. It was a weird-looking bicycle with claws and chains and each time the pedal rotated, loud creaking sounds would echo through the room. After a few experiments, Mr. Amamiya drew the conclusion that the pipes acted as sound transmitters that sent the sound across the town, which then amplified and resonated through the small protrusions that had been cleverly built-in when the city was first constructed. The original town planners had created this to keep the intruders away.
However, instead of revealing the truth, the Amamiyas had devised a secret plan. To use fear to their advantage, and get back at the townsfolk for treating them coldly. For grownups, though they were, the Amamiyas were still little kids at heart who just wanted a place to belong to.
Over the next few days, the Amamiyas had smuggled in an acquaintance from the next town and kept him hidden while friends from different towns had actively started spreading the news about ghost hunts and the Amamiyas abilities as Shamans. The new rumor was that the townsfolk had angered the guardian spirits and now they had gone berserk and the Amamiyas were trying hard to protect the town.
The drill was this, every now and then the creaking sound would grow loud, and then Mr. Amamiya assisted by his wife would walk out the manor chanting strange incantations and perform a mysterious dance, and gradually the sound would subside.
And so, with this little trick, the clever yet childish Amamiyas had finally managed to create a place for themselves in the quiet town called Shijima.
Thank You all for reading. Hope you enjoyed this story. I would love to hear from you so do drop in your comments and suggestions.
This is Satrangee Parachute, off to churn out more interesting stories.