The sun was hidden behind the grey clouds, the road was desert, the forest wild, the gate intimating. He at the shrine of Ojow, and it was decorated with the corpses of believers.

No one went to that shrine for good reason, Ojow killed anyone who she didn’t deem worthy. Not a lot of people worthy. Going there was practically a suicide.

Besides why someone should have gone there? There were shrines much closer of kinder spirits, why going to such a risk to visit a forsaken shrine in the jungle?

Yet here he stood, not because he wanted to prove himself brave or because he was particularly pious, far from it he deemed himself a coward and an unbeliever.

But because he didn’t want to end his life in his room or splattered on a sidewalk.

He reasoned that if he were to die he could at least do it in an interesting way.

So he decided to see the dog spirit before dying by its bite.

He entered the gate and passed through the wild forest, for him it was terrifying, not because it was particularly scary but because he was far from the comforts of home, everything outside his comfort zone terrorize him really. Going hiking, visit a new place, change restaurants or take the dog outside. Why struggle and break free from it if there was nothing worth doing in life? Why suffer if there was no greater aim?

He pressed on, retreating now would be too much of a shame, even for him.

It was there that he encountered someone else, another person, the shrine maiden.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

He looked at her, she was dirty and neglected, his nails overgrow, she smelled bad and his clothes were filthy if it was not for the amulet that said that she was the shrine maiden he would have exchanged her for a beggar, and not the good kind of beggar.

She was a little repulsed by her “I want to encounter the goddess before dying.”

“Before dying?” she asked, “You look pretty young to die.”

“I know that I am still young, but I can’t bear this anymore, everything looks to me so absurd and mad, it’s too much for me.”

“So you came here to die?”

“Yes”

She thought for a little about it.

“This is not the place that you need”

“I just want to see the dog spirit before dying. I w-”

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“I don’t care” She responded interrupting him and started walking away.

He grabbed her hand, looked in her eyes and said: “Please, it’s my last wish.”

She pushed him back with strength, then paused “I will show you the way to the shrine of Ojow. Now come follow me.”

“Thanks,” The boy said.

They had walked for a bit and he was thinking about what had just happened, and a question arisen in his mind, a strange one, had she blushed when he took her hand? Now that she thought about it how much time had she spent alone? Without talking or feeling the contact of someone? She wasn’t exactly a beautiful wench but neither a crazy old woman. Usually, he would never ask such a question, but this time was different, he hadn’t anything to lose.

“Listen I was wondering” he looked at her “for how much time have you been alone here?”

She looked at him, without responding.

“A... long time, no one ever comes here, they believe that Ojow will eat them. That isn’t true, Ojow isn’t a cruel spirit, in reality, Ojow just wants l- ” she stopped mid-sentence “Ojow just want a little more attention. Some offers, an actually good shrine, stuff like that...” she looked down while saying the last phrase, her expression had changed.

He recognized that expression, he had seen it many times in his mirror.

“Ojow just wants a little more love?”

“Yes, a bit more of love…” she looked at him “Besides why you want to die?”

He thought before responding.

“One day I woke up and was all dark, there was no light, no hope, nothing. Just darkness and emptiness, I looked around me seeking clarity, I didn’t found it. I looked for help, talked to people, but people don’t want to talk about those things, people don’t want to think about those things. But I went on regardless, that is until the darkness didn’t start devouring me, all the sudden I would find myself not able to leave bed, or do anything long term. I became pathetic, I was pathetic. People looked at me at how one looks a madman or someone who is exaggerating things. One day I was unable to continue my normal life. Not long after I went here.”

She looked at him in a strange way, it was empathy or piety for the boy?

“Is like a sickness that devours anything that you hold dear isn’t that right.”

He was surprised.

“Yes, like that.”

He felt something, a kind of connection.

“It’s possible that one day you will find your light?”

“Possible yes, but I don’t believe that I can resist until that.”

They arrived at the “shrine”, really it was more like a barrack than anything else if he hadn’t known he would have believed that it was a house for pigs.

The boy entered the shrine making all proper salutations and prayers, he looked around and was confused. It was empty.

“So what you want to say to me, the spirit Ojow?” He heard a voice from behind him, quickly he turned, it was the maiden.

“You are the spirit?” He asked a bit confused.

“Oh don’t act so surprised, you always know that from the moment you saw me.” she replied “I am sorry but I won’t kill you, you are confused, disoriented, in despair, but none of those things makes you unworthy. Now go home and… continue to live, please”

He came closer to her, grabbing her hands “Please, I can’t continue living that life.”

She pushed him back.

“Please, really please, don’t” she was nearly crying.

For a moment he felt something that he hadn’t feel in a long time.

He came closer to her again, this time slowly, she showed him the teeth and nails, but he didn’t care, as he was coming closer she was going away. At a certain point she hit the wall, he came closer and he hugged her, patting her head.

She began crying, soon after he began to cry too. They hugged each other stronger.

There, in that far shrine, he had found a kindred soul.