Woman with the split face

Yeah...This is kinda bloody. Its a bit a a story I wrote based on the Japanese "Woman with the split face" legend.

    A Geisha walked by on the side of the street, an umbrella hiding her face modestly. Nobu called out to her while attempting to pull his horse over to the side. The normally compliant mare refused. Nobu would ordinarily beat the stead to force its cooperation but he wanted to keep seem calm and collected in front of the lady, so he slid off the horse and walked over to the her. She turned to face him keeping her eyes lowered and a sleeve raised to cover the lower half of her face, as if she were hiding a secret.  The alluring lady greeted him with a diffident nod as befitting a Geisha. He wondered why she should was wandered the outskirts of town unaccompanied. Feigning a gentleman, he offered to be her escort back to town as it was close to night fall. When the woman approached the mare, the animal reared back snorting. Nobu couldn’t force its cooperation without seeming cruel, so instead he made a weak excuse for the horse’s jumpy behavior, which caused the Geisha to giggle coyly.

     The two decided to head for the village on foot since luckily it was nearby. As Nobu pulled his unwilling horse along behind them, he found that his companion spoke hardly at all, which suited him just fine, for he always had plenty to say. She fell behind him a step as they reach the outskirt of the town. Nobu didn’t mind as he continued to monopolize the conversation, nor did he see the woman pull a long knife from the folds of her obi. The horse let out a loud whinny and tugged with all its might at the reigns. Its tether was yanked free of Nobu’s unprepared grip and the horse set off at a run in away from the village. Nobu had turned to chase after the horse but froze at the Geisha’s sudden proximity and the sight of the knife in her hand. He unsheathed and swung his sword at her in a single movement, but it seemed to pass right through her. In an inhumanely swift motion the Geisha grabbed Nobu’s neck in one pale petite hand, gracefully crushing his wind pipe. Nobu hissed and wheezed, too disoriented to fend her off as the dagger in her other hand sliced his mouth open from cheek bone to check bone. Nobu clutched his bleeding mouth. The Geisha wiped off her white face paint and red lipstick with a sleeve revealing the long gash of a scar that split her face.  Nobu, shocked at the sight of the disfigured apparition, stumbled back. As he reeled the specter advanced and sliced off his head. His head bounced and rolled across the dirt road coming to rest face up, its blank eyes reflecting the fresh night sky and its bloody mouth grinning gruesomely at the night sky.