They say that the gates of Hell open on the seventh month of the Lunar year. For thirty days, the spirits roam the earth.

Hakkai rather hopes that one spirit does. He sits on the porch, waiting for... what, he’s not quite sure. The night air is heavy with the smell of burning paper -- the townsfolk committing offerings to the flames. Hakkai will not burn anything. A thousand lives and an entire castle was sacrifice enough.

The night turns. Towards morning, a single, stray breath of wind brings him the smell of spring flowers from a year long gone.

--

Endnote:

The 7th month always falls around late summer / autumn. This year (2004) it was around September.