Jezz’s Daily Story

Let me tell you a story. It won’t take long, it’s a short story.

In Japan they speak of a monster – a yokai – who haunts bathrooms. Dirty ones. Its name is Akaname and it has strained red skin and feet which end in a single toe and a curled, withered nail. Akaname haunts dirty old bathrooms because he relishes the scum that accumulates around plugholes of sinks and the mold that grows between cracked tiles. He hides while old men bathe, waiting for the water to drain and the lights to turn off so he can slide silently into the tub and indulge himself in the filth. He licks it, with his craven tongue dry and white, slipping in and out from his flushed cheeks. He loves this scum, it nourishes him: it is his obsession. He licks it, sucks it up; he will be there all night. He licks it, this filth. And licks it.

I have been around for a long time – longer than you might believe – and in this time I’ve been to Japan. I have met many yokai and I have met Akaname. It was a motel, or an inn, or a nobleman’s estate; I can’t remember the exact era, but it was a decrepit old place. I was getting ready for sleep and I came into the bathroom, and in the low light of a flickering bulb or a burning lantern I saw the filth-licker there, red and writhing with some intense pleasure; sliding manically to get to the dirtiest corners and lick them. It was a rotting old bathroom and the muck there was particularly foul, and in his orgasmic fervour the thing failed to notice me entirely.  I stood there for a while and thought about how to react to this remarkable phenomena. It was only when he looked up at me, startled and squealing,  that I took the only action a man of my particular profession ought to take.

I met Akaname – and I licked him.