Foggy Past Pt. 1

Mark walked down the street towards one of the many shops in the area, scratching his neck.

“Man… why do I have to pick the groceries up…”

Ever since Seph, the chore boy, had gone back to his home it was up to Mark to handle everything. Between groceries and school he was barely ever at the inn these days. Though he did his best to stay away from the exorcists until the damn flying circus they called a meeting hall had connected to another building. He’d heard it was fairly far away, which gave him some relief. He didn’t hate his uncle in the slightest, but he would never become an exorcist. Never.

He whistled as he walked, starting to enter his old neighborhood. Lucky for him in his childhood many of his relatives had lived around here. He’d only had to switch schools four times, even though he’d had around nine different families. They’d always thought he was strange, crying out at what they perceived as nothing, and running away from Youkai chasing him. The strangest part was that he’d really thought they were only his monsters. Well, at least until he got put with his uncle. Then he learned a little about Youkai, and a little about exorcists as a whole. They were glorious knights in shining armor to his uncle, which was great, but something Mark would never want to do. As strange as it sounded, he simply wanted his old life back.

Strangely, he’d done it again. He’d walked to his first home. The place his parents had died. It had turned into a stigmatized property, new residents floating in and out of the place that housed his youngest dreams. Mostly poor people, or perhaps the traveling salesman every once in awhile, but no families. It was always one or two people. He’d come here every once in awhile and talk to the owner, who’d tell him who lived there at the moment. Every since that incident, not one family had taken up the residence. It seemed like the place was haunted, sending people into disarray whenever they were there for three months or more. He’d wanted to believe that it was just bad luck, but twelve residents later and it hadn’t let up. Perhaps he’d wanted to go there, to see what the problem was.

But did that make him an exorcist? No… no that didn’t make him anything of the short. He wanted to make sure that there were no evil Youkai in his childhood home. What was the harm in that.

Mark walked up to Mr. Pella, the owner of the apartment complex and asked for permission into his old home.

“Mark? You’ve got terrible timing. The last resident just left a few hours ago.”

“Oh… I wasn’t here to for that again. I thought it might be time to, I don’t know, take a look.”

“You want to look around? Go for it.”

The middle aged man smiled and threw a key his direction and smiled, leading mark to catch it and do the same.

“Take your time kid. The old place ain’t going anywhere.”

“Thanks Mr. Pella.”

“That’s James to you kid.”

“Of course, thanks James.”

Mark turned towards the stairs and began the familiar walk up, feeling the banister with his hand, the smooth wood welcoming. He seemed to be swept up the stairs by some practically unknown force, and was soon standing in front of his old door. It was white, with a small gold painted peephole, a small design, and a gold painted iron doorknob. He put the key in the lock and turned, feeling the tumblers in the lock move slowly. The next thing he knew he was turning the knob and walked inside briskly, hands in pockets. The lights were out, leaving the place in an overwhelming darkness. He turned one of the lights on, seeing in his memories two bodies laying on the floor, accompanied by a crying Youkai. Had she really killed his parents? He’d never been able to ask… not after telling her to leave like that. She’d never have forgiven him. Mark walked into the next room, looking down at the old white carpet.

“Heh, looks like that wasn’t even changed.”

Mark knelt down to feel the carpet, and soon found himself lying down on it. The carpet he’d played tag with his father on, that he’d spilled chocolate milk on countless times, leading his mother to scold him in the kitchen while his father tried to suck it up with Mr. Pella’s shop-vac.

So much had happened here, yet now even the apartment had forgotten him and his family. He continued to lay there, feeling sleepy. It looked like the carpet still had that effect on him, but he embraced it, rolling over onto his side. With that, he let weariness take him.

Poke.

“Mmf…”

Poke poke.

“Nnggh…”

Slap!

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Wha-?! Who’s there?”

Mark rolled back against the wall, looking through the dimly lit room with quickly darting eyes. When he found nothing, he looked behind himself. Behind him was something… staring at him. It was in his shadow!

Mark quickly jumped up and moved his body, but the Youkai seemed to have stuck itself to his shadow. Instead of staying in the apartment, Mark quickly leapt outside and threw the key back to Pella, whom he issued a curt goodbye to.

“See ya?”

It was all he heard before he ducked behind a house nearby, looking at his shadow. The eyes still looked up at him. It was a leecher. According to Seph they were known to steal energy and power away from their hosts, and while easily expelled, the ritual required knowledge of Youkai, at least enough to know that you were being changed by one. Eventually it would fill Mark’s head with so much dark thought that he would kill himself, he knew that part at least. Mark wasn’t really a risk taker however, and started back towards the inn. Oku would likely know a way to get rid of the thing, or maybe Hato could use her light power to blow it out of him. It was worth a shot.

That was when the thoughts came. He didn’t want to go back to the inn. He didn’t want to see them right now. Slowing down, he took a left at the intersection ahead. He was going for a walk, and nothing was going to stop him.

Stopping on a bridge, he looked down at the water. The sun, being straight above him, cast a shadow down onto the water, and once again all he could see were the eyes staring up at him. Turning away, he started walking again. What had he done. Wasn’t it enough for his parents to die? Why did he have to tell Koko to leave him alone. With her… he might have just made it. Life wouldn’t have been a living hell, and who knows. With her there he might just have been able to stay with his first foster family. She could have kept him from being so scared, from running from his family whenever Youkai were near, from shouting randomly in class. It would have been nice, but at the time all he’d been able to see was Koko, bloody, crying on top of his parent’s bodies. What would any other person do, seeing that? A random person off the street would have automatically suspected Koko, regardless of if she was the actual killer or not. The first witness is always suspect number one until proven innocent, yet still he felt terrible. He knew, he’d always known deep down in his heart that she was innocent. Yet he’d never see her again.

“Damn it Mark…”

“Mark?”

He heard a voice, leading him to look around quickly. After analyzing the area he began walking. It had sounded like the call had come from behind him, so he kept an eye over his shoulder. It was strange, the voice had sounded so familiar.

“Mark?”

There it was again! This time he ducked behind a light pole and stared out from behind it, sneaking a glance down at his shadow. Wait… the eyes were gone… Looking closer at the shadow he noticed something else. Did it have mass? Alright, he was starting to get freaked out. He really didn’t want to call his uncle but… this called for it.

He quickly popped out his flip phone and dialed Reinhardt, who picked the call up in only two rings.

“Mark! How are you!”

Holding his head away from his uncle’s booming voice, Mark told him about the problem.

“I think a leech Youkai connected to me, and Seph is out of town… I don’t want to bug you but could you help me out?”

“Of course! I’ll trace your coordinates and have a portal set up in minutes!”

Immediately the man hung up, leaving Mark a bit stunned. It was true that he needed the help and it was also true that he didn’t want to bug his uncle. However, it was more because he didn’t want the old man trying to trick him into becoming an exorcist than him not wanting to be a bother. A few minutes of impatient waiting and Reinhardt had tracked Mark’s location down through his cell phone and popped out of a portal a few feet away, backpack on his large form.

“Hello Mark! It’s a bit warmer here now, huh?”

“Yeah… is the Byzanague place doing well?”

“Yes! The exorcists are immediately making it their home after the hall connected there. Great place, warm too. The middle countries are very warm this time of year after all! Now, let’s get down to the problem at hand.”

Reinhardt brought his head near the ground, staring at the leech on Mark’s shadow. He poked at it with a strange looking piece of gnarled wood and it moved a little bit.

“Hmm… this is a strange one Mark, where the hell did you pick up a leech like this?”

Deciding it was in his health’s best interest to tell the truth, he started retelling the events of the day.

“After I got it at my old apartment I came here and heard something calling my name, so I decided it was time to bring you here.”

“So you wanted to see the old place huh. I understand, and luckily it didn’t attack James.”

“Can you get rid of it?”

“Course I can!”

Reinhardt took the pack off his back and started rummaging through it, pulling out a vial of sand and some paper, along with a candle.

“Ah, this should be enough. Alright, stand right here.”

Mark was pointed to a spot in the middle of the road and his uncle got to work, pouring the sand out little by little into a circle around his feet. Next, he took the roll of paper in his hands and wrote a few things on it with a ballpoint pen, also taking it out of the pack.

“Hmm… yes…”

After putting a few scraps of paper on the shadow, Reinhardt quickly went back to Mark’s front and lit the candle. Seconds later he closed his eyes and uttered a few words, leaning down over the candle and covering it with his other hand. It grew quieter until Mark felt something strange, it was like someone was tugging at his back. Looking back, he saw the shadow had stood upright, staring at him with it’s intense eyes. Mark almost fell backward, but even through his fear was able to stay upright. He had to keep from breaking the circle or the ritual would probably be broken. A few seconds later the leecher was sucked from his shadow over into the flame, Mark’s eyes following the shadow’s motion. As soon as the darkness touched the flame it seemed to dissipate, turning into some sort of smoke, and Reinhardt relaxed. After wiping his head, he smiled.

“Man… that bugger was strong. It was almost as if it was sucking energy off of something el-”

Reinhardt stopped in his tracks, his hand even stopping halfway across his brow. Mark began to ask what was wrong as his eyes followed his uncle’s.

“Uncle, what’s wro-”

As he looked back at his shadow, he saw it as well. That wasn’t the only thing that had been attached to his shadow.

“Koko?!”