Luke Morrison was never scared of anything.
At 7, he climbed down the old well behind his grandma's house because his cousin dared him to.
At 12, he slept overnight in a cemetery with a flashlight and a sleeping bag;
At 16, he broke into that abandoned psych hospital and stay all nights, the one where those kids disappeared back in the 90s.
People said he was brave and fearless.
Luke just thought it made good videos.
He'd been running his YouTube channel for five years now. 1.3 million subscribers. Not bad. His whole thing was going to those **haunted** places and showing everyone they were all BULLSHIT.
Like that demon house in Connecticut last month. Turns out it was just some old dude named Gerald who was sick of teenagers partying on his lawn. The *ghost* in the window? Gerald with a flashlight and a bedsheet. Those scary screams everyone heard? Speakers hidden in the bushes playing Halloween sounds.
Gerald actually laughed about it when Luke figured it out. Offered him a beer and everything.
That video hit 4 million views.
Here's the thing about horror that most people don't get. Real scary stuff isn't jump scares. It's not some creepy girl crawling out of a TV or a demon nun with shitty CGI.
That stuff is boring.
Horror movies now are just who can scream the loudest. And torture porn? Jesus. Just blood everywhere, people getting chopped up in worse and worse ways. So overdone. So fake.
Luke wanted real fear. The kind that gets in your head and stays there. Makes you look over your shoulder three days later. The unknown kind. The kind your brain can't figure out.
But not like, actually dangerous. He wasn't stupid. No serial killers. No cartel shit. Nothing that would get him actually killed.
There had to be something in between fake ghost houses and real murder, right?
He just hadn't found it yet.
**
It was past 1 AM when Luke left the bar.
The comedy set went okay. Tuesday nights at The Rusty Nail weren't packed or anything, but twenty or thirty people showed up. He told them about Gerald and the demon house. Got some laughs. Some people bought him drinks after, asked for pictures.
Could be worse for a side job.
Luke was tired as hell walking to his car. Cold too. Halloween night. The streets were trashed—plastic cups everywhere, candy wrappers, those sad melting pumpkins on people's porches.
He was maybe two miles down the road when he saw her.
Someone in white. Standing by the road with her thumb out.
His first thought: damn, that's a good costume.
She had on a white kimono. Not the cheap party store kind either, this looked real. Nice fabric, done up all traditional. She was tiny, her dark hair all pinned up with a long silver chopstick, that make her more stunning... maybe just five-two? ..probably older. You know those asian people always looks younger.
Whenever you hear their ages, you always shock.
Then here come the second thought: what the hell is she doing out here alone?
There was nothing around, no houses, just empty fields and woods in the dark.
Pretty wierd, but it was Halloween. Maybe she got ditched at a party. Maybe her car broke down. Who knows.
Luke pulled over.
She came up to his window,so he can see her face clearly. Damn, she was pretty. Like really pretty. Pale skin, dark eyes, delicate face. Early twenties probably. The kind of pretty that makes you do dumb shit, like picking up strangers at 1 AM.
She bowed, like an actual 90 degree bow ,like a shrimp.
"Konichiwa,"
Luke said the only japenese he can say at that time, feeling pretty proud he remembered that word, which can be actually used in some formal situation.
She smiled. Small smile. Polite.
"Thank you,"
she said in a very soft voice, barely any accent.
Luke unlocked the door. "Where you going?"
She got in, moved all graceful, fixed the kimono around her legs. "East. Anywhere east."
"That's not really specific."
Luke started driving. "You got an address or...?"
"I will know when we get there."
She folded her hands in her lap. "You are kind to stop."
"Yeah well. Can't leave someone out here on Halloween. Bad karma."
She looked at him. Really looked at him. Her eyes were extremely dark, almost like that pure black pigment you only find in an art studio.
"You don't believe in karma."
Not a question, it sounds more like statement.
"How would you.." Luke laughed weird. "How do you know that?"
"You look like someone who doesn't believe in much. But you're searching for something to believe in."
Okay. That was creepy,a random hitchhiker reading him like that.
"I'm Luke. What's your name?"
"Yuki."
"Pretty name."
"Yes, but why?"
Luke tried to find a reason but failed.She read his awkwardness, giggle like a girl in anime.
"cuz.. it is ..japanese?
"Yes. Very Japanese." Another little smile.
They didn't talk for a bit. Luke kept looking at her from the corner of his eye. She sat super still. Hands folded. Back straight. Everything about her was so controlled. Even her breathing.
"So what happened?" Luke said. The quiet was getting weird. "Bad party? Your friends ditch you?"
"Something like that."
"They sound like dicks."
"They were." She looked at him again. "But I found someone better."
Something about how she said it made his skin crawl. The tone,and the way she stared just too long.
"How far west?" Luke asked. "Because I live like ten miles from here and.."
"That's perfect," Yuki said.
Luke's hands got tight on the wheel. "I didn't say you could come to my place."
"You were thinking it."
"No I wasn't."
But yeah, he kind of was. She's hot, she's alone, it's late. Can't just dump her nowhere.Nobody will do that.
And honestly when's the last time a girl like this talked to him? ..He cannot focus on driving at all right now.
"I really need somewhere to stay tonight, please." Yuki said with a very soft tone, "You have a place."
"That's not how this..look, you can't just.."
"How does it work then?"
Luke didn't know what to say. He picked her up, offered a ride,so what was he supposed to do? Drop her at a motel at 1 AM? Give her money for a cab?
So might as well let her sleep on the couch,just one night. What could happen? just one night, one night....stand? ..
"please," her voice get even softer, "Luke.. "
"Fine," he said. "One night. You get the couch, I get my room, and tomorrow we figure out where you actually need to go. Deal?"
Yuki smiled."Deal."
That smile made Luke's stomach flip.
But driving through the empty streets, past the dying jack-o-lanterns and trash everywhere, Luke couldn't stop thinking he just fucked up.
Yuki sat there, perfectly still,and not saying anything.
Just watching.