The Burnt Shrine

The burnt shrine remembers. The salt forest waits. Javi thought he'd left his old life behind. In Tokyo, he found a quiet existence and the love of Aiko. But a drunken night with friends turns their shared fantasy into a disastrous reality: buying a dangerously cheap, abandoned house at the foot of Mount Kagamiyama. The traditional akiya is surrounded by a forest that swallows the light. Upon arrival, they find a charred shrine and a silent old man who hands Javi a protective charm with a chilling warning: "That place is not for the living." They soon realize they are not alone. Whispers in archaic Japanese. Red feathers frozen in mid-air. A woman in a bloodstained kimono who only appears in photographs. As friends begin to vanish into the darkness, Javi discovers that the horror is not random. It is an inheritance. The curse did not begin with them. The Burnt Shrine is a masterful work of Japanese folk horror and psychological terror, perfect for readers of Nothing But Blackened Teeth and fans of J-horror cinema.

Pages: 127, Paperback, Independently published