“I’m heading out, ma!” I poked my head in the living room.
“I don’t care!” Mom shouted, not looking up from the TV.
“Thanks, love you too ma.” I deadpanned, which didn’t even worth a response from the bitch.
Sweet freedom awaited as I put on my shoes and opened the door. Poor-people suburbia stretched as far as the eye could see under the night sky, but my eyes only had one destination as I walked up to the door of the house across from us and knocked. Our street didn’t have much traffic, so I didn’t bother looking both ways. It was a familiar squat apartment building with dusty fence doors and cracked beige walls.
I pressed the buzzer for room 302, waited, and opened my mouth, “Yo dipshit, let’s go, the jail cells are feeling empty.”
You can’t greet anyone normally, can you?
Without preamble, I opened the door, ignoring the clear cut gap on the side where the ends didn’t quite meet the bricks. Knowing the elevator was in a perpetual state of disrepair I walked up the annoyingly proportioned stairs, cursing the dumbass construction workers, and split off into the hallway where I obnoxiously knocked on the second door to the left. I then stuck the Spare Key bros., my stolen lock-pick tools, into the door and unlocked it with ease.
I’m coming, I’m coming. Jeez, what if I was indecent?
“I would’ve made you come.”
Y-you can’t just say that!!
I smirked. “I can do whatever I want. Right now, I want to do crime, so I’ll do you later.”
She covered her completely red face with her hands and made noises. I try not to think about how much of that adorable face I must’ve forgotten.
I took her hand and led her out the door, interlacing our fingers together in my pocket. She let out a yelp as I forgot to warn her before touch, and I cursed myself, but she didn’t let go. “Sorry.”
N-no, it’s okay, don’t let go please.
My heart ached, and I brought her hand to my lips for a soft kiss, going slowly so she could steel herself for it.
“I won’t.”
We stared into each other's eyes in silence for a moment, her blushing at our bodies close proximity.
“Come on, Faith. We’ll be here all day if we get all lovey dovey.”
Some of the neighbors gave us side-eyes as we walked back down stairs, and I was careful not to clench Faith’s hand as my body tensed, ready to fight. It never came to that, as usual, but I never let my guard down. Most people didn’t care. Other people pretended not to care. Some people…
I shook my head and kept walking until we reached the street. Then I used my free hand to pull out a list. “Alright, love. The raiders should have emptied out LA already, but ever since 2am last night the big wigs have declared Hollywood safe for rebuilding. We might be able to get some spooky paraphernalia if we’re fast and lucky.
How did they get rid of the hivemind?
“Don’t know, don't care. Let’s go before the Night Terrors arrive.”
And so they were off to see the wizard; me skipping along humming a happy tune, and Faith exasperated and practically dragged by her hand. I didn’t blame her. Most people tended to avoid supernatural disaster sites like the plague if they could, after all. The people who did were either desperate, powerful, or had too many screws loose to care. I myself was a proud member of that third group, while Faith belonged to a secret fourth group of mother hens making sure the third group didn’t slip on monster blood and die or eat something they shouldn’t.
Honestly though, to me, the so-called sane people were the weird ones. I mean, come on, we’re literally living the end of the world, don’t you want to at least live a little before you inevitably die a horrible death? It seemed like sound logic to me, but whatever.
I zoned out for a while as I skipped along, following spray painted tags on the asphalt. The crisp night air was always just chilly enough to require a sweatshirt, and unlike some other place, this little suburb was wide and open enough to welcome the bright moonlight from above, making a nice contrast with the yellow street lights. As a kid, I’d thought that the moon was following me whenever I entered a car. Now that lifeless ball of silver light was always full, and always present in its fixed position, only ever shifting in intensity between night and day. Its constant presence now had me wondering more than once if it wasn’t actually a giant eye tracking my movements across this endless hell.
Eventually we found the area we were looking for, and I snapped out of my funk. An entire four blocks of apartment buildings merged together in strange ways were decorated, burnt, and crushed. Spray painted stars lined the sidewalk, and dead bodies in homemade costumes and masks. I walked up to said bodies and pretended to frisk them.
“Wow, that’s creepy as hell. They’re still smiling even when they’re dead.”
God, I don’t even know how you can do this, I think I might barf!
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“You say that every time.”
Well usually it’s not human bodies that you’re poking around!
I paused to stroke her hand with my thumb, resisting the urge to point out that they were magical aliens, not humans. “You know I’ll still love you if you stay behind, right? I won’t hold it against you.”
She let out a pouty grumble. If I leave you alone you might get stuck in some gross crap again.
“It was one time!”
I won’t be able to kiss you if you get jail time for trespassing a cleanup site again.
I paused. “True, that would suck. Better get this done quick before anyone spots us then, eh?”
She sighed with so many emotions it might as well be a full sentence as I pulled her along yet again. It was easy enough to fill up a bunch of vials with the creatures’ sparkling blood, but I didn’t have the skills to take out their vocal chords, which was probably of particular interest. Other than that, these little monsters were basically a grab bag of grotesque mutations ranging from tongues and claws to tumor-like growths and tentacles, and I pocketed all the ones that looked interesting and severable enough.
“It’s kinda funny how the musical monsters are more diverse than most of actual holywood. They’re inclusive little murder machines!”
Imagine if they were actually good at singing? Maybe they would’ve forced these guys to make actual musicals for free! she giggled.
“They aren’t too threatening, so I wouldn’t be surprised if researchers captured some of them.”
Oh, wow. Just realized it’s really weird how murdering hundreds of people isn’t considered “too threatening”.
“Mm. Yeah.” I paused in my scavenging, staring at the ugly mask of the corpse I’d dressed in a Batman suit. “I wonder if the researchers think it was worth sacrificing a handful of soldiers in the blockade in exchange for their spooky new pet.”
I don’t know. I think the Hollywood bigwigs had more of a say in delaying the eradication than the researchers.
I continued my rummaging. “True. Maybe the chance to save a few for themselves was a prize for the researchers who found a way to neutralize these guys with the least collateral damage possible.”
The scavenge continued uneventfully as they bantered back and forth about the many forms of the creatures and which one of them should harvest which parts. I found a particular thrill in wiggling or tossing the grosser parts near Faith to see her grossed-out reactions. Eventually though, they came up to the front doors of the main attraction; the theater! The large mismatched building must have been at least as big as my high school gym, and it reeked of soot, matching its burnt black appearance. Inside the cracked glass doors, I could just barely make out the practical bonfire sitting in the center of the lobby. Now that I was standing here, I wasn’t so certain in the building’s ability to support its own weight anymore. The tingling suspense made my heart race, and the side of my mouth couldn’t help but quirk upward.
Do you really think the queen is in there?
“The lead role, and yes. I do.” I took a step forward-
Faith remained still, yanking my arm back and almost making me fall in surprise. Um. Sorry, it’s just, don’t you think our bags are already full? We don’t have to explore a building on its last legs looking for the body of an extremely dangerous supernatural creature.
I couldn’t help but frown slightly before quickly wiping it off my features. I couldn't have Faith thinking I was angry at her.
“But doesn’t it sound so fun? We’re real explorers, going into uncharted territory in search of treasures!” I tried to convince her, but her grip on my hand tightened even further.
“It’s not fun if you get hurt” her voice was deliberately steady.
I immediately felt a wave of irritation and exhaustion, but I pushed it down into my chest. “It’s already dead.”
“You never trusted the government before.”
“I can handle a little scuffle with a dying theatre nerd,” I rolled my eyes.
“And if the building collapses on you?” her voice began to pick up.
“I’ll be careful!”
“You can’t just keep doing this Obake! Have you ever once thought that maybe I don’t want to watch you die in front of me!?” She shouted, voice cracking with emotion as she grabbed my palm with two hands, squeezing tight.
I stared at her, all my thoughts frozen in shock.
Faith’s cheeks were flushed red, her mouth screwed up into a deep frown, and those watery eyes looking as if she was about to cry at the drop of a hat. She was tall enough to look down on me, but that round face surrounded by chin length hair ruined all chances of intimidation. Seeing that familiar expression of hers, I couldn’t help but reach out to hold her face in my palm. The tears fell, and I wiped them with my thumb as she sagged into my touch. It always astonished me, just how vulnerable and “innocent” she could be, especially with her background. It baffled me even more how a parent would be anything less than overjoyed to raise such a good kid. I leaned in, hypnotized, and she closed her eyes as she moved to meet me. Our lips touched, and my grip loosened as I moved to grab her waist-
And the severed hand I’d been holding dropped to the floor. When I looked back up, Faith was nowhere to be seen.
…
Ah…That’s right…
She’s gone
Shesgoneshe’sgone she’s gone she’s gone shesgoneshesgoneshesgone shesgonethey’reAllGone shesgone don’t go don’tgodon’tgodontgodontleaveme She’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s dead she’s gone she’s gone she’s left you she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone she’s gone you abandoned her so she left so she’s gone and NOT HERE-
-It’s fine.
I’m fine. Everything’s fine. I can handle it. Street, streetlamp, spray paint, burnt building, moon. Soot, jeans, witch hat… yeah. I’m okay.
The show goes on.