Born and raised in Tokyo, I moved to a coastal town after marriage, but my husband left on a long business trip shortly after our wedding, leaving me to endure the loneliness of living alone. I had never met my father-in-law, a fisherman, and tonight he was due to return after three months away on a tuna fishing expedition. I prepared dinner and waited, but when there was no sign of him coming home as usual, I decided to go to bed early. A few hours later, I woke up in shock, feeling an eerie sensation as if slugs were crawling all over my body. Before me stood my father-in-law, grinning widely as he attacked me—ushering in a new chapter of my life, one shared with him in the dead of night.