Eldritch
Amy loved crabs, she would read about them, draw them and would love going to the beach searching for them. It helped that her parents were Marine Biologists and would shift base every few years. She used to love going to search for crabs with her parents on Sundays. As she grew older, she would ride her bike to the beach and look for crabs and journal about them.
On her 16th Birthday, her parents told her they were moving to Japan for the next year, and she couldn’t believe it. She felt like one of her life long dreams just came true. Of all the crab species, one that held her fascination the most were the heikegani crabs.
These crabs were believed to bore the faces of ancient warriors on their shells. According to legend, they were the reincarnated spirits of the Heike clan, who perished in a naval battle against the Genji clan in the 12th century.
Amy wanted to collect the heikegani shells and study their patterns, hoping to find some clues to their mysterious origin.
The first few weeks after moving there were a whirlwind of getting used to the new life. She made a few friends at school who would tell her about the local legends. Stories from mythology and ghost stories. She would make notes from these stories as most of them were related to the Heiki clans. Her friends told her about sunken shipwrecks and how it were the ghosts of the Heiki who were responsible.
One Sunday, while her parents were out for work, she decided to go to the beach and search for crabs. She looked out the window, and the clear sky made her decide to go snorkeling near one of the many sunken shipwreck that was rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of the Heike.
She took her father’s boat and set off alone. She wanted to see the heikegani up close, and maybe even catch one for her collection.
She reached the wreck site and put on her mask and fins. With a graceful leap into the water, she embarked on her journey towards the sunken vessel, a shadowy silhouette resting on its side at the bottom of the sea. Schools of vibrant fish darted among the nooks and crannies, while corals and seaweed flourished on the rusted metal. She also saw dozens of heikegani crawling on the hull, their shells gleaming in the dim light.
She felt a surge of excitement and curiosity. She drew closer to one of the crabs, extending her hand to touch it. To her surprise, it did not scuttle away or nip at her fingers. Instead, it turned its head and looked at her with its beady eyes. She gasped, startled by the clarity of its face — it wasn’t a random arrangement of bumps and ridges but an uncanny likeness of a human visage. A face she recognized.
It was her father’s face.
She recoiled in horror and let go of the crab. She looked around and saw that all the other heikegani had similar faces. Faces of people she knew. Her mother, her brother, her friends, her neighbors. All staring at her with blank expressions.
She felt a cold hand grab her ankle and pull her down. She screamed and kicked, but it was too late. She was being dragged into the depths of the shipwreck, where more heikegani awaited her. She saw her own face as a heikegani swam past her.
She realized then that she had made a terrible mistake. The heikegani were not the reincarnated spirits of the Heike clan. They were something else. Something ancient and evil. Something that fed on human souls and took their forms.
She had found the heikegani horror.
And it had found her.