After Dark

It is 3:25am in Eri Asai’s room, and the Man with No Face is gone. Eri remains motionless on the television screen. The narrative camera cannot look away, as though something might happen.

A tremor so slight it may be a “visual hallucination aroused by our desire to see some kind of change” passes the corner of Eri’s mouth (130). The camera zooms in, and it happens again.

The narrative camera examines the room on the television. Becoming a “conceptual point of view devoid of flesh,” it passes through the screen (131). The real world crumbles away, and the one depicted on the screen takes its place. The room smells stale and slightly moldy, like it has been disused for a long time. The camera moves closer to Eri, unable to do anything but observe. Eri slowly struggles awake. Eventually, she opens her eyes and covers them against the glare of the fluorescent lights of the room where the Man with No Face had been.

Eventually, Eri sits up, trying to figure out where she is. She recognizes her bed, but she is unable to piece together how and when she entered this unfamiliar room.