Tanya, a 25 year old woman, was browsing the strange antique items displayed in a strange shop that she's never seen before. Than again, she hasn't been in her home town in years as she was only attending a family reunion. So at the day she was supposed to leave, she at least wanted to get a nice gift for her current boyfriend Leo and thought a nice antique to place around the house. One statue in particular caught her attention, what looked like a simple fox sitting, but with what looked like nine tails fanning behind it. It was a shining white color with red markings around the eyes, cheeks, and tail tips. She saw the face of the vulpine beauty almost as if it started right back at her and couldn't resist.
"How cute." She says picking up the sculpture. "A nine tailed fox... I heard that concept before-" "The kitsune, is what they call it." Tanya looks beside her to see an elder woman beside her. "Kitsune? Yeah. That's like a Japanese myth right?" Tanya asked. "Myth..." She whispered quietly. "Ahem... Kitsune are representation of intelligence, long life, and magic. The more tails it has, the older and more powerful they become." Tanya didn't want to be rude and cut off the conversation, but she wanted to get home before nightfall. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you have appreciation for this kinda stuff, but it'll be dark by the time I get home, so how much do you want for it?" The lady looked at her in almost in disgust in her rudeness. "I'm sorry... It's a really lovely statue. I was just looking for a gift for..." The lady put her hand on the statue Tanya held. "Listen, if it means so much to you, than take it. As well as this." She reaches into her bag and takes out a scroll of some sort. "I'm sure your curious about the history of the kitsune, so if you like you could read up on this." She handed the scroll in Tanya's free hand as she walks to the back room through the curtains. "Wait! I can't just take-" Tanya tried chasing her in the back room but she was nowhere in sight. All there was was a desk with a light shining down on an empty scroll. "Huh? Where did..." Tanya wanted to look for her, but her watch showed it was 4:45 pm. It would take her 3 hours to get home so it would already be dark. She looked at the statue and the scroll and sighed. "Thank you miss... Wherever you went..." She said walking out the front door.
After a fairly long drive, Tanya made her way up to her apartment. She wanted to visit Leo when she got back, but getting caught in some family conversations as well as the souvenir stop had taken more of her time than anticipated. She unlocked her apartment and set the fox statue on her coffee table letting out a yawn. She checked her watch to see it was already 8:00 pm. "If I didn't have to work tomorrow I would stop by. But I'm exhausted." She says going to her bedroom getting ready for bed. Suddenly her cellphone rang and she looked to see Leo was calling her. Rubbing her eyes, she answered. "Hey. What's up?" She asked over the phone. "Nothing much. I just wanted to know how the trip was." Leo asked over the phone. "Exhausting. I wish I didn't have to work so early tomorrow." Tanya said putting some her sweat pants. "Are you home already?" Leo asked. "Yeah. I wanted to get home early, but I wanted to get you a souvenir from town. It's not much, but I'm sure you'll like it. I'll leave it by your door tomorrow on my way to work." She says yawning. "Damn. I really wanted to see you tonight. But I suppose your worth waiting for." Leo teased. Tanya giggled. "I better be. Anyway, I gonna get some sleep. See you tomorrow." She says. "Okay. Love you Tan." Leo said before she hung up the phone. She collapsed into her bed and tried to get comfortable. But something didn't seem right. "Feels like I'm being watched or something." She thought before she finally drifted off to sleep. From the other side of her door in the living room, the statues eyes were glowing bright white with some sort of presence emitting from the inside which either Tanya, or Leo will soon find out.