On a dull dark day in the desolate countryside, Mezo Shoji rode for the dreary and melancholy house of his lifelong friend Fumikage Tokoyami. When he reached the house, he saw a sickly and frail Tokoyami waiting at the door of the decrepit house.

Shoji: Tokoyami. I got here as quickly as I could.

Tokoyami: Shoji! My dear friend, I have after all this time been awaiting for your arrival!

Tokoyami led Shoji inside the house. The house had cracks on the wall and all color was faded. In the letter, Shoji read that Tokoyami was suffering from a mental illness. Tokoyami and Shoji sat down for a glass of wine in the dining hall. 

Shoji: How is Tsuyu? 

Tokoyami: She is...unwell. Her body has been stricken with a terrible illness. She.....she is not long for this world.....

Shoji: I'm sorry my friend.

Tokoyami was silent. His frail appearance seemed even more frailer as sorrow began to take him. 

Tokoyami: I am the last of my family.....Tsuyu could not bear any children and I fear my time shall come sooner rather than later......

After that, Tsuyu walked down the hallway towards her room. Shoji was shocked to see the once vibrant Tsuyu was now a shell with sunken eyes a pale complexion.  

Shoji: My God......

As Tsuyu slowly walked to her room, the chandelier looming above them fell to the ground and shattered to pieces. Tsuyu didn't even look back. While Shoji was startled, Tokoyami's reaction was that of a man facing impending doom. In the evening, Shoji walked to his room while the house seemed to decay more and more. Some time later, Shoji was writing in his journal when Tokoyami burst through.

Shoji: Tokoyami! What happened?!

Tokoyami: She's dead! My poor innocent Tsuyu is dead.....she has left me......

Moments later, Tokoyami and Shoji went to Tsuyu's room to see her dead in the bed. Her face was even paler than before and her expression wore a somber complexion. At Tokoyami's request, Shoji personally aided him in the arrangements for her burial. She was to be laid to rest in the crypts. 

Shoji: Fumikage.....she's in a better place.....

Tokoyami: I'm all alone......I'm all alone......

After the burial, Shoji grew concerned for his friend. In his grief, Tokoyami's mental state began deteriorating as did his house. Small cracks grew bigger and bigger. One night, a powerful storm swept to the countryside. 

Shoji: This storm looks bad.....I hope the house will endure. The last think Fumikage needs right now is to be left without a home.

But as Shoji was lost in thought, Tokoyami ran to his room and opened the window. He leaned outside with a mad look in his eye. 

Tokoyami: Can you hear it?! Can you hear it?!

Shoji: Tokoyami! 

Shoji pulled Tokoyami inside and closed the window. When he looked at his friend, Tokoyami's face showed signs of madness. 

Tokoyami: I hear it, and have heard it! We've put her living in the tomb! We buried her alive! We buried her alive!

Shoji: But that's impossible! She had no pulse! She can't possibly still be alive!

Shoji then tried to calm his friend by offering him a glass of wine, but Tokoyami slapped the glass out of his hand. As the glass shattered, it seemed the house groaned in pain. 

Tokoyami: I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in her hollow coffin. I heard them many days ago. Yet I dared not, I dared not to speak of it! The rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! 

Shoji couldn't believe what he was hearing from his friend. He could tell that in the grief of his wife's passing, his mental state deteriorated to the point of what seemed to be hallucinations. The storm grew more and more terrible as the thunder boomed and the lightning cracked the sky. The windows of the house started to break. Shoji tried to comfort his ailing friend.

Shoji: Be calm. It is the storm that draws breath, playing tricks on us both! Your wife is gone....she rests peacefully in her tomb....

As Shoji said that, more cracks began appearing in the house. Tokoyami started pacing around in an attempt to make sense of it all. 

Tokoyami: Is she not hurrying to unbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footsteps on the stairs? Do I not distinguish the heavy and horrible beating of her heart?! Madman! MADMAN!

The house soon began deteriorating faster and faster. 

Tokoyami: I TELL YOU THAT SHE STANDS WITHOUT THE DOOR!

Tokoyami shoved Shoji to the ground to open the door. He soon saw what appeared to be his wife Tsuyu surrounded by what appeared to be rest mist. Shocked in horror, Tokoyami was still as his wife embraced him. The both fell to the ground as she seemed to phase past him. Tokoyami's face was that of shock and horror. 

Shoji: Tokoyami!

As he called out to his friend, the house started breaking apart. The floor beneath Tokoyami broke away as he fell into a red abyss. Shoji then exited the house in a hurry as the house began collapsing on itself. He rode away from the house. When he got to a safe distance, Shoji turned around to see Tokoyami's house completely collapse. As it did, Shoji heard what appeared to be a final cry of pain and suffering. Shoji couldn't comprehend what he saw as he witnessed the fall of the house of Tokoyami.