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Vend: Blending archaic occult rites, A.I technology and paranormal hauntings, Vend is a terrifying Asian ghost story of a machine possessed by an evil menace dispensing a curse born of the dark arts.
VEND
When a cursed vending machine resurfaces on the dark streets of Tokyo, urban legends turn into waking nightmares. Dubbed the "Red Cap Curse," rumors swirl of a sinister machine that dispenses Crimson C energy drinks, drinks that doom the consumer to vanish without a trace.The disappearances began decades ago, dismissed as myth... until now.
Office workers vanish. College students go missing. Teenagers disappear. Every bottle is a gamble with a sinister curse; an abomination conceived in surreptitious sacrifice and black magic. The police are baffled, grasping at straws in what appears to be the work of a deranged copycat, or something worse. Online, the mystery gains momentum as thrill-seeking content creators attempt to uncover the truth by enacting a forbidden ritual meant to shield them from the machine's wrath. But protection is a lie. One by one, they vanish too.Enter Naomi Portman, an American woman returning to Japan after forty years, haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her older sister, one of the curse’s earliest victims. Determined to uncover what really happened, Naomi teams up with Shun and Aya, a pair of rogue urban legend investigators who believe the curse is only a symptom of something far darker, and Yoshi Yamamoto, a disillusioned detective on the edge of obsession.
Their investigation leads to a crumbling trail of suppressed reports, ritualistic writings, and Blackheart Industries, a shadowy megacorporation linked to ancient mystic experiments in mass mind control and spiritual binding. At the heart of it all lies a the drinks aren’t just cursed, they’re gateways, tethering the drinkers to a realm of trapped souls, feeding a malevolent entity that hungers for fear, pain… and blood.
Now, they have just three days to locate the machine's origin, destroy the source of the curse, and confront the enigmatic figure known only as The Man in the Dark Suit, a being who may not be human at all.
If they fail, the curse won’t just claim more lives.
It will spill over into our world.
Some legends are born of fear.
Others are made to feed it.
When a cursed vending machine resurfaces on the dark streets of Tokyo, urban legends turn into waking nightmares. Dubbed the "Red Cap Curse," rumors swirl of a sinister machine that dispenses Crimson C energy drinks, drinks that doom the consumer to vanish without a trace.The disappearances began decades ago, dismissed as myth... until now.
Office workers vanish. College students go missing. Teenagers disappear. Every bottle is a gamble with a sinister curse; an abomination conceived in surreptitious sacrifice and black magic. The police are baffled, grasping at straws in what appears to be the work of a deranged copycat, or something worse. Online, the mystery gains momentum as thrill-seeking content creators attempt to uncover the truth by enacting a forbidden ritual meant to shield them from the machine's wrath. But protection is a lie. One by one, they vanish too.Enter Naomi Portman, an American woman returning to Japan after forty years, haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her older sister, one of the curse’s earliest victims. Determined to uncover what really happened, Naomi teams up with Shun and Aya, a pair of rogue urban legend investigators who believe the curse is only a symptom of something far darker, and Yoshi Yamamoto, a disillusioned detective on the edge of obsession.
Their investigation leads to a crumbling trail of suppressed reports, ritualistic writings, and Blackheart Industries, a shadowy megacorporation linked to ancient mystic experiments in mass mind control and spiritual binding. At the heart of it all lies a the drinks aren’t just cursed, they’re gateways, tethering the drinkers to a realm of trapped souls, feeding a malevolent entity that hungers for fear, pain… and blood.
Now, they have just three days to locate the machine's origin, destroy the source of the curse, and confront the enigmatic figure known only as The Man in the Dark Suit, a being who may not be human at all.
If they fail, the curse won’t just claim more lives.
It will spill over into our world.
Some legends are born of fear.
Others are made to feed it.
341 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2025
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