Flesh-Colored Horror - Beehive

Beehive

• Originally appeared in "Monthly Magazine Halloween" May 1991

The story starts with a girl, Yoriko, and a boy, Takano, talking about the boy's love of beehives. He mentions that collecting hives is still a great hobby, but he does other things too and hasn't had time for it, although there were quite a few hornets buzzing around as they walked. They start kissing when he suddenly spies a giant hornet and runs off after it. She follows. He notes that the giant hornet flies lower as they go so the nest must be close by, but stops chasing and gets a surprised look on his face when he notices it going 'in that direction'. The girl catches up and asks why he stopped chasing the hornet, and he casually says he's already seen all the ones in that area and he has new ones. The girl teases him, saying he's afraid to go into that part of the woods because of the story about the ghost there that sounds like a kid moaning. He assures her that that is ridiculous, and she asks if he has seen 'Him'. When he asks who, she tells him about the weird kid that has been missing for a while.

Her story flashes back to her local neighborhood, where she and her neighbors are discussing a large hornet's nest under the eaves of her house. One of the neighbors recommends she contact this weird kid that he had used for removing his hornets' nest who had taken the thing down with his bare hands. She asks how she can find him but the man is vague, saying he's not sure, just that the kid lives nearby but he's not sure where. Suddenly Takano walks by (this is obviously their first meeting) and asks if he can have the hive. He says that he's a beehive collector, but that he couldn't take it just then because hornets are most active during the day. (They continually switch between beehives, bees, hornets, and hornet's nests. They aren't the same thing, but it could be a translating issue.) Takano says he will come back at night and get it. Just then, the weird kid shows up - dirty, messed up, with a bland not-quite-awake look on his face all the time. He offers to take the hive. The neighbor points that this is the kid he was talking about and the boy pleads for a ladder. He says that men like Takano, who collect hives, use pesticides and kill the bees, but he can take the hive and just relocate it. He says that all the area used to be forests, and then people moved in and cut down the trees. He thinks the people should move out.

The kid climbs the ladder and all the hornets zoom into the nest. He cuts it down and begins to walk off with it. Takano is amazed the kid isn't stung once, but follows the kid and confronts him out of sight of the neighbors. He says that he found the nest first and accuses the kid of being a fellow hive collector who is stealing his hives. The kid shrugs him off, saying he is only protecting the bees from suckers like Takano because they are his friends. Takano makes a grab for the hive and the hornets come out, stinging him. He runs away - and right into the girl, Yoriko. She checks to make sure he's OK, mentioning that she's seen him around, and they decide to be friends.

The next scene shows Takano in the woods where Yoriko finds him. He explains that he's using tuna to lure the hornets and then following them so he can find their hive. He races off, Yoriko following, and they come to a cave. He urges Yoriko to stay outside and goes in alone. The cave is full of loud buzzing and inside he finds several different species of hornets/bees, with many different hives, all living in the cave. Below them, covered in hornets, is the weird kid - holding up a dead frog for them to eat. They make eye contact, then Takano flees.

Later Yoriko and Takano are in the room where Takano keeps his hive collection. The conversation goes back to the weird kid, and Yoriko says she thinks he's dead - and buried in the woods. That would explain the ghostly noises. Takano looks panicked and has a flash back showing what happened - how he had gone back to the cave with protective gear on to steal the hives, but the hornets had attacked. In a panic, he had strangled the weird kid and killed him

A quick flash shows Takano in the woods at night with a flashlight, although it is not clear what he was looking for. He sees a stick with a flag on it - a sign that beehive hunters use to mark hive locations. He begins digging and finds a beautiful hive and begins to dig it up when two other show up in the distance, shouting that they had found the hive first. He begins digging faster but the hive seems stuck on something. Thinking it is a root, he begins furiously hacking and slashing til it finally breaks free. He runs away to his hive collection area to deposit his find and sees blood on his hands, lamenting that he must have hurt a mole or something while he was digging.

The next day Yoriko comes pounding on Takano's door. She says that bee hunters found the body of the weird kid in the woods - with his head chopped off. She says that the body was still bleeding when the police got there, and that they are looking for the man who was spotted taking the boy's head by the bee hunters. In horror Takano goes back to his collection to see a puddle of blood under his new hive. He opens it up - and finds the weird kid's head inside. He thinks back to the tuna he was using as a lure - and how the hornets must have been carrying it to the boy. He must have been buried alive, and the hornets built the nest around his head to protect and feed him. The 'root' he had cut must have been the boy's neck, and he had killed the boy by mistake. Just then, hornets come from the inside of the nest and begin attacking Takano. The story ends with Takano on the floor, being processed by the hornets as they rebuild their nest.