Chapter Text
There was a gentle breeze blowing through the open windows of the abandoned school building. Birds were chirping outside, singing their little songs to one another, perched in trees right at the peak of their autumnal glow. The world was at peace, celebrating another day closed.
All of this was at odds with what was happening inside of C-ta. He felt his every muscle tense up, his heart pound -- ka-THUMP ka-THUMP ka-THUMP -- like it was about to burst from his chest. He gulped -- tried to, but his throat was mysteriously bone dry.
"Is it true?" he managed to croak, not sounding at all like the levelheaded and calm guy he was supposed to be. "Do you mean it?"
A-ya held his notebook close to his chest. He wouldn't meet his eyes, instead staring at a knot on the ground. His expression was unreadable, even to C-ta, who'd spent so long studying his friend's moods, his unique way of expressing emotion, every strange and off-putting mannerism that no one else could ever possibly tolerate.
This was new, C-ta realized. This was a new feeling.
"Yes," A-ya murmured, quiet but somehow firm at the same time. "I can't go home with you today. B-ko and I are going to see a movie."
It didn't make sense. Ever since he could remember, he and A-ya would hang out after school when the latter had the energy to, or just text from their individual houses if not. It's what A-ya wanted -- what he needed in order to be safe and grounded. So for him to decide to hang out with B-ko instead felt like all logic and reason had been fed through a cotton candy spinner. Something was wrong. C-ta strained himself to understand what it was.
“Why?” he asked, when all other words failed him.
A-ya shrugged, still not looking up. “She asked if I wanted to.”
Of course she did. Of course B-ko, the most popular girl in school, could walk up to anyone she wanted and steal their attention and their soul. Of course she'd have no problem ruining all of the safeguards C-ta had carefully put together to protect A-ya over the course of years. She had no idea what she was getting involved with. She'd only be putting him in danger by bringing him into her spotlight.
And A-ya was falling for it, somehow. A-ya knew so much about the occult and how to walk both into and out of a demon's grasp, and yet didn't have the slightest bit of awareness when it came to real danger: social dynamics. The fact that he could so easily get bewitched by B-ko's charm, and entertain the idea that he'd have a better time watching a movie with B-ko tonight than resting in the safety of his best friend's house. It was bad.
“It’s a horror movie -- not a good one according to online reviews -- but it could still be interesting legend material. It’s better than going through the same old motions I do every day.”
He knew he shouldn't have just stood by as B-ko started bothering them after school more and more often. He’d had a bad feeling about her since day one, when she cursed A-ya out just for spreading a little rumor about her. Underneath that likeable facade was a cruel and heartless person.
“She asked me if I wanted to hang out with her outside of school. I hadn’t really thought about it before. I was telling her about that haunted train station -- you know, the one with the girl who got kidnapped by the devil?”
C-ta was barely listening to him at this point. She was using him, she was getting revenge on him for the numerous pranks he’d pulled and rumors he’d started about her. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it before. B-ko had finally seen through A-ya’s facade, had figured out how weak and manipulable the boy really was. Only he could stop her plan; A-ya needed his help now more than ever.
“C-ta?”
C-ta blinked. A-ya was looking at him, his sullen red eyes aglow with a more familiar look -- a look C-ta recognized as helplessness. It was so obvious, just so obvious now, what was really going on. He put on a warm smile to try to calm his old friend’s nerves.
“Want me to come with you?” he offered. His voice cracked on the “you” -- he tried to ignore it.
There was no response. A-ya had pulled out his phone while C-ta was speaking and was busy typing away at something, which wasn’t unusual for him -- just another anti-social habit that only C-ta could forgive. A-ya needed him so badly that it was a wonder he could even get through the day.
C-ta cleared his throat. “A-ya? Did you hear me? I asked if you wanted some company. Yknow, in addition to her.”
“I said no, C-ta,” A-ya spat, making C-ta double take. “B-ko didn’t invite you. You hate scary movies anyway. You’d ruin it.”
“You don’t mean that,” C-ta said, frowning.
“I do, actually.” A-ya’s thumbs paused their frantic movement, and he sighed. “It's just that-”
"A-ya?" A voice floated in from the hallway. B-ko's demure head peeked in, and C-ta's heart sank even more. She looked bemused at the sight of them, and yet C-ta couldn't get his body to move a muscle. "Are you ready?"
"I have to go," A-ya said. He slung his backpack over one shoulder and headed toward the door. "I'll see you later, okay?"
“Okay…” C-ta replied, his frown deepening. “I…”
The other boy turned the corner and vanished. B-ko followed him, but not without one last quizzical glance at C-ta. She almost looked apologetic -- or maybe that's just what he wanted to see. Then she called out A-ya's name and raced to catch up with him.
For a moment, all C-ta could do was stare at the space where his friend had just been standing. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. The birdsong outside had stopped, but the noise inside C-ta’s head was louder than ever.
“Stupid B-ko, stupid movie… stupid horror genre!” C-ta grumbled. A pair of girls looked up from their conversation as he passed them on the sidewalk, but he paid them no mind.
It wasn’t fair. At that moment, B-ko was probably sucking up to A-ya, listening to his stories and telling him he was interesting in that fake, pathetic way that she did to everyone else in school. Later, she’d invariably find something to get mad at him about and she’d show her true colours. He’d seen her yell at A-ya in private before. If she did that in public, she was sure to get everyone on her side, and A-ya would be all alone in a sea of people who hated him. The thought was almost too much for C-ta to bear. He saw a small rock on the ground and he kicked it as hard as he could.
It wasn’t C-ta’s fault that he couldn’t stand horror. The thought of some inhuman monster on the loose, watching its victims from afar, stalking through the dead of night when no one would be able to see it coming, and then sinking its claws into his flesh right when he was least expecting it… C-ta shuddered. He couldn’t even watch Halloween episodes of cartoons when he was a kid. For a while, it’d seemed like A-ya was the same way, but as time went on he had grown more and more engrossed in the scary shows and movies on TV, both cartoon and live action, and all C-ta could do was sit facing the other way, clutching A-ya’s hand until it turned white.
A bird in a nearby tree squawked out of nowhere, and C-ta jumped about a foot into the air.
“Stupid… stupid stupid!” he continued to grumble as he held his hand to his chest and waited for his heart rate to slow. He shot the bird a glare, and then blinked as he took in his environment; the dense cluster of trees and the grass underfoot. This was not the path to his house.
Shit. This kept happening. He needed to stop getting so engrossed in thought.
“Hello?” he called out, to no response.
C-ta unlocked his phone and opened up the maps app. Sure enough, he’d gone straight past his house and into what looked like the gloomiest, creepiest park in the city. The sun was starting to set, now, and the long shadows of the trees seemed to reach out to him, ready to grab his ankles and pull him away.
Perfect. Just perfect. Exactly what he wanted after everything that had happened earlier.
C-ta set off in the direction the map told him his house was. Dead leaves crunched beneath his feet with every step, surely making him the easiest target possible for whatever was lurking just out of sight. The chatter of birds overhead started to die down, more interested in watching the lost boy find his way to safety.
He squeezed his right hand, but it found only air.
C-ta wasn’t sure if minutes or hours had passed. He did his best to bury his gaze in the light of his phone screen, only looking up intermittently to make sure he wasn’t about to walk into a tree. He was strong. He was brave. He could get through this alone.
“Arouuuwwww…”
C-ta screeched and fell on his ass.
Two bright yellow eyes peered at him from the darkness. It made the sound again -- low, hollow, menacing. C-ta flashed back to the cartoon he’d watched with A-ya, and his whole body tensed up. This couldn’t be it. It wasn’t fair. If that idiot B-ko hadn’t tricked A-ya into hanging out with her, he’d be home with A-ya right now, helping him with his math homework while A-ya rambled on about nothing! Poor, weak, defenceless A-ya; A-ya, who’d gotten himself into trouble and not even C-ta could help him now…
C-ta heard the sound again, but it hit his ears differently this time. The eyes seemed to look down, rather than approach him as he’d feared. Tenuously, C-ta picked himself off the ground, and after taking a deep breath, shone his phone in the creature’s direction.
It was a cat. It was only a cat, and as C-ta took in the sight of it, the visions of monsters in his head melted away.
He stepped toward it gingerly, and it seemed to recoil. As he got closer, he noticed a couple of things about it. It had black fur, like the cats in the Halloween cartoons. Its eyes were yellow, but there were specks of red in it -- possibly from crying? Most notable, however, was the fact that one of its paws appeared to be trapped beneath a log.
“Oh, you poor thing,” C-ta murmured. He crouched down, trying to seem as non-threatening as possible. “You poor, helpless creature. Let me help you, okay?”
The cat met his eye, but didn’t flinch or hiss. It just watched as C-ta lifted the log and set it down a few inches away. It eyed its now-freed paw, gave it a little lick, and then trotted off without another sound.
C-ta smiled. It was sweet, really. It felt good to help out an animal in need. All of a sudden, the day’s events didn’t seem so horrible, and the forest didn’t seem so dark. Everything was fine, ultimately. Now he could look forward to getting home and starting on his homework.
He hadn’t been walking for long, however, before he heard another sound. “Miaoou…” Something touched the back of his leg, and for a moment, C-ta remembered his fear from before about the shadows dragging him away.
He looked down and his eyes met the cat from before. It meowed again, and brushed its paw on his leg. Crouching down, C-ta could see that something wasn’t right with it. It was bent at a funny angle, and the fur was matted down. He frowned at that.
“You hurt your paw, didn’t you.”
It meowed once more, as if to say yes.
C-ta thought for a minute. In the glassy sheen of the cat’s eyes, he saw a ghost turn and walk out the door.
“I said no, C-ta. I’ll see you later.”
Carefully, he gathered the cat in his arms and stood up. It didn’t protest; only wriggled in his grasp to get more comfortable. Up close, he felt moved by how cute it was; how cute, and small, and helpless it was.
“I’ll take care of you, alright? You don’t have to worry anymore.”
With that, C-ta took off in the direction of home, accompanied only by a gentle purring pressed up against his chest.
“C-ta…” His mother raised an eyebrow as he walked in, arms full of creature. “What is that?”
“It’s a cat,” he replied, kicking off his shoes so as to avoid putting his new friend down. “I found it in the woods. Its little paw was trapped under a log, the poor thing… I just had to take it home with me.”
C-ta turned around, feeling his mother’s stare on the back of his head. “Wait, that’s okay, right?” he asked, not having considered the fact that he had parents. “Can I keep him?”
She looked back and forth between the equally pleading looks on both her son’s and his cat’s faces, and sighed. “Alright. You have to take care of him though, you understand? Your father and I are very busy with work right now.”
“Oh, I can take care of him,” C-ta said. Lacking a free hand, he rubbed his cheek on the cat’s head, and it meowed. “We’re going to be the best of friends, just wait and see.”
His mother crossed her arms, but didn’t say another word. Taking her silence as approval, C-ta smiled and headed up the stairs. He let his cat down onto his desk chair, and then looked around. His room was spotless, as always, but it had nothing in it for a feline friend. He had a lot of work cut out for him for sure, but for some reason it didn’t seem daunting at all. C-ta felt like he was floating on air.
He brushed an arm across the left side of his desk, knocking an assortment of trinkets and school supplies onto the floor so he could clear a space for his cat. He picked him up again and put him on the desk so that he could see him while on the computer. The sight of the cat’s face with his tongue just barely sticking out made his heart swell.
C-ta tapped a key and his monitors sprang to life, revealing the video feed of A-ya’s empty bedroom.
Oh, right. C-ta had gotten so engrossed in his cat that he’d entirely forgotten about why he’d ended up in the forest to begin with. The flickering grain from the feed shrouded A-ya’s bed, the place C-ta always found him in the afternoons, texting and reading on his ancient phone; never, never sleeping. He and B-ko must‘ve still been out; talking and sharing, using and being used. It made him feel sick.
“Rr..raou…”
C-ta’s head snapped over at the sound. His cat had scooted over and was waggling his head at him. He bapped C-ta’s hand away from the keyboard, and looked up expectantly. C-ta smiled and petted between the ears. With the other hand, he moved A-ya’s camera feed onto the other monitor.
He had other important things to do now, anyway.
C-ta opened his web browser and started looking up instructions for taking care of cats. Each time he saw something interesting, he split it off into a new window, until the whole screen was covered in text and little animated pictures of kittens. He saw a list of the best veterinarian approved catfoods to buy, the kinds of toys cats loved and hated, how to appropriately dispose of litter, and so on.
There was something about looking after a little creature who loved him, who needed him. C-ta couldn’t put his finger on it -- perhaps he didn’t want to. But as he stroked his pet’s black fur, he felt the worries of the day disappear, replaced by an odd feeling of comfort, of feeling stable. It was a feeling he’d been missing for a long time. Maybe he could feel like this everyday, again.
He scrolled down a list of cat names until one in particular caught his eye.
“That’s perfect,” he breathed. On the other screen, A-ya walked into his room, laid down on the bed, and started typing away as usual. C-ta barely noticed. Instead, he gazed at his cat, who had relocated onto his lap and was purring softly.
“I’ll call you Aiko,” he said. “My little love.”