Chapter 39

The day Akane had been quietly fretting over finally arrived. Meeting Caleb's mother proved to be far easier than introducing him to her own parents. There was still so much she was uncertain about, after all. But what was more, this would be the first time Caleb saw her family home. That alone was enough to ramp up her anxiety. Especially given how affluent his mother was. If Caleb was bothered at all, however, he didn't show it as they walked from school to the front door of her house.

"Just remember, my parents may still be recovering, but they're both very traditional and very strict. Especially Dad," Akane insisted, a nervous quiver in her voice. "He's gonna ask you about a hundred different questions right out of the gate involving grades, colleges, future careers, everything."

He chuckled in amusement. "Akane, I'll be fine. I've lived in this country for close to four years. I know the drill."

"Okay, but..." She was still really fidgety. "...this is a huge step. Meeting the parents doesn't mean the same thing in Japan as it does in the US. My parents only agreed to this because I assured them you were committed to marriage once we're both out of college. Dad still isn't a hundred percent convinced we're not just children playing at adulthood."

"They do like me, though, right?"

She nodded. "When you showed up at the door with a gift for me for our first date, Mom was very impressed. Dad also likes that you're top of your class right now in grades. They've both loved everything I've said about you so far." After giving it some thought, Akane finally took a deep breath and smiled again. "Okay...I see your point. I'll try not to worry so much."

He laughed good-spiritedly as they walked up to the front door. "I get what we're doing isn't exactly the norm, but I see no reason why that has to matter. Your parents want to know that you'll be taken care of. All I have to do is show them that my life is in order. The rest will sort itself out."

"Just, whatever you do, don't mention the gap year," she insisted. "That would be like...a death sentence for us."

He rolled his eyes at her and nodded. "Are you gonna open the door or just keep worrying yourself to death?"

Akane sighed nervously before sliding open the door. "Also, I apologize in advance for the temperature in the house. I keep telling my parents they need to turn the heat up more, but they never listen to me."

As they stepped inside, two things stood out to Caleb at that moment. The first being that it was nearly as cold inside the house as it was outside. Secondly, while the house wasn't necessarily messy, everything was coated in a fine layer of dust.

Almost immediately, Caleb could tell something was off.

"Wait here a second. I'll go let them know we've arrived."

Once Akane had left for the living room, Caleb used the opportunity to take inventory of his surroundings. The property itself was actually decently big, likely inherited, though there didn't seem to be a single light on anywhere. Walking over to the thermostat, Caleb noted that the house's heating wasn't just turned down. It was completely off.

"Wait a minute...."

He walked over to a nearby lamp and tried flipping it on. At first, he thought maybe they just kept it dark to keep the light bill down, but that wasn't the case at all.

His girlfriend was living without power.

"Okay! They're ready for you now."

Caleb jumped upon hearing Akane's voice. He turned around to see his girlfriend beaming at him happily, to which he smiled back.

"I'll follow your lead."

She gestured for him to follow. Akane slid open the door to the living room before taking a breath to steel herself.

"Okay..." She plastered on a bright smile. "...Mom, Dad, I'd like for you to meet my boyfriend."

They entered the living room together. It was the same as the front entrance. Everything was covered in dust, and cobwebs hung on the walls. This house hadn't been touched in years.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the two figures sitting quietly on the couch.

"This is Caleb," she introduced as bright and happy as ever. "Caleb, these are my parents."

Caleb stared at the two mummified corpses sitting on the couch in front of him. Their organs were in jars on a table to his left. Heart, liver, kidneys, all of it had been carefully preserved in jars of formaldehyde. Whatever eyes there may once have been were long gone, replaced now with soulless sockets and a gaping, rotted mouth. For the longest time, he simply stared in silence.

"Well...say something."

He slowly craned his neck over to his girlfriend, who had a worried look on her face. Her eyes, at that moment, were slightly too big to be natural.

"Caleb, you're embarrassing me in front of my parents," she insisted quietly.

He stared at her, then at the two rotted bodies, then back at her again. Akane looked slightly unhinged at that moment. She was waiting for him to do something.

Finally, Caleb smiled and bowed with respect.

"Mr. and Mrs. Toriyasu, it's wonderful to meet you both. Forgive me for not speaking up sooner."

Akane almost instantly perked back up and giggled at him. "You can call them Mom and Dad, silly. We're official, after all."

"Of course," he quickly corrected, now fully in character. "Nice to meet you, Mom and Dad."

"He's just a little shy," Akane assured her dead parents before smiling back at him happily. "But I promise Caleb is one of the politest boys you'll ever meet."

Another silence hung in the air. Akane was looking at him expectantly again.

"Forgive me." He bowed again. "I seem to be having trouble hearing you." Caleb turned to his girlfriend and spoke in English. "Akane, are they feeling well?"

She walked over to her father and knelt down to check on him, mumbling in Japanese.

"Oh. Well, that makes sense." She looked back towards Caleb. "He's gotten a bit of a cold and lost his voice."

Caleb smiled in understanding. "I'm very sorry to hear that, Sir. Would it be alright if I let your daughter speak on your behalf?"

Akane leaned in close to her father's rotted teeth and listened. "That'll be just fine, he says. Also, he wants me to let you know your Japanese is very impressive." She then turned back to her father and whispered to him. "I told you, didn't I?"

"Thank you." Caleb bowed once more. "I've been working extremely hard to become fluent in the dialect. I'll need it for when I start at UTokyo."

"Hear that, Daddy? UTokyo." She listened to him for a moment, nodding along before turning back to Caleb. "He wants to know if you've gotten your acceptance letter yet."

He nodded. "I have, Sir. Though I've yet to take the national entrance exam, I've already been accepted based on my score on UTokyo's entrance exam."

"And what will you be studying?" Akane spoke up for him.

"Pre-law."

"Do you have a graduate school in mind?"

"If not UTokyo, then UKyoto will be my second choice. Though I don't foresee any issues. I've scored in the top percentile grades-wise since I was ten."

"Tell them about your private education in the US," Akane encouraged.

Caleb nodded. "I was tutored extensively as a child by private instructors. By the time I was seven, I was fluent in Russian and English and was already familiar with algebraic equations."

There was a pause.

"Mom asked what it is your parents do for money," Akane explained.

"Well, my father tragically passed away several years ago. But my mother is a Physician at Tokyo General."

Back and forth, it continued like this, with Caleb speaking to two literal corpses as if they were living, breathing people. He was pleased to see Akane smiling. And in her own mind, at least, it seemed like he was winning them over.

Right now, that was all that mattered. There would be time for addressing the fact his girlfriend murdered her own parents later.