Warming up on the wooly beige carpet on the floor, the twins were huddled together in the living room’s makeshift coffee table now being used as a study table. Books were scattered messily on the table and the carpet in the most disorganised manner but the twins had an affinity towards chaos. It was yet another day of cramming assignments on the last day for the both of them.
“Dylan, check the answer for this.” Demi instructed him as she pointed to a badly written indistinguishable problem on her notebook.
Dylan squinted his eyes and remarked. “You should really stop writing ‘z’ like a two… it’s so damn confusing!”
“It doesn’t matter just check it!”
“Wait! How did this become negative?” He questioned. She answered almost immediately, “Cause I took it to the other side of the equal to symbol!”
He started screaming with the same expression but in disbelief, “You can’t do that!”
“YES YOU CAN!”
“Oh! Yeah, you can…” Was it his innate talent to annoy his sibling or just the general lack of knowledge? Nobody knows.
While both barked at each other answers that they weren’t even certain of only to end up writing a completely different answer on paper, time was running fast.
The buzz of Dylan’s phone almost sent it off the table top, but thankfully it’s fate was yet to be sealed as he quickly grabbed hold of it.
“Gasp! A video call from Dad!”
He swiftly placed the phone against a stack of books and positioned it perfectly.
“Hey, dad!” He waved. Demi scooted from across the table and joined him.
“Hey, kiddos! Have you been good?”
“Of course, we’ve been good! What do you mean?”
“Dylan, don’t play innocent. You haven’t called this entire week, clearly something is wrong.”
“Ah…” Demi glanced at Dylan, seeing how he would react to their father’s instincts.
“N-Nothing happened. Nothing noteworthy!” He was too obvious.
“Right… Demi, what do you have to say?”
She simply shrugged indicating she didn’t know anything.
“Fine, don’t tell me! I’ll figure it out soon enough because I’ll be back later this week.”
They both nodded their heads vigorously.
“Until then, don’t cause trouble for Will, got it?”
“Aye!” Dylan sounded unenthusiastically because clearly they were doing the opposite.
“Anyway, how is everyone?”
“They’re all good, although I don’t see Will’s mom come by these days…”
“I see…” He was worried about his friend’s instability, but it’s not like he could’ve made their lives any better with his interventions. But he grew up along side Will’s mother and also watched Will grow up. It was hard to see their family split up and letting the unfortunate things happen in front of his eyes.
“Will is doing great. I mean, he’s got Angus!” Dylan reassured him was his feeling became overbearing.
“Ah, yes, that cat! Whose brilliant idea was it to name it Angus?”
“Of course it was Will, who else would come up with a crazy name like that!” Dylan screamed confidently.
“Don’t forget your amazing suggestions— naming a cat chihuahua, really? That’s the best you could come up with?”
“Come on! It made sense, when we found him he was so small and frail and had a bulbous head and the same devil present inside every chihuahua!”
“Angus, wasn’t that sinister. I think he just hated you. All the bites and scratches you sustained were clearly your fault for harassing the poor thing.”
“I remember you crying a waterfall after you getting bit by him. It was adorable, you were bawling not because you got injured it was because a cat managed to break your heart and reject your love.” Their dad was a master at embarrassing story telling time.
“La, la, la, I can’t hear you!”
After a few more exchange of conversations with the three and their father being extremely excited to share the photos of all the places he’d been to, the twins were once again forced into answering an incoming call, but this time it was from Ray.
“Sup?” Demi asked.
“I want to ask you guys something.”
“Is this about the blanks?”
“No.”
“I need your boyfriend’s number.”
“That sounded wrong in so many different levels…” But regardless of the weirdness, she was still curious, “What for?”
“Just give it.”
“Nah! Why would I? What do you need his number for?!”
“I need it to get a hold of his sister.”
“Which sister?”
“Sigh… of course, the older one.”
“Why?”
“Demi.”
“Jeez, alright~! I’ll send it to you. But, don’t be unpredictable and say everything outright.”
“…”
Beep~! The call ended. Demi was left to biting her nails in anticipation and worry.
“Tsk- This is not going to end well.” Anxiety was seeping into her mind as she recounted all of Lin’s and Ray’s encounters before—none ended on normal friendly terms.
Whilst Demi was busy with the call, Dylan’s attention was elsewhere. He was engrossed by his phone screen, looking at what appeared to be live tv.
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“What happened now?”
“Well, Ray wanted Lin’s number…”
Also a little skeptical he proceeded to ask, “Why?”
“I don’t know. Something about Gabbie…”
“Oh, right! Gabbie works at that café along with Ray. I bet it’s something work related.”
“Hmm… to be completely honest I don’t think Lin would be of much help.” She mumbled.
“Why do you say that?”
“Never mind.”
A faint tapping noise emerged from somewhere in the distance, so quiet you could barely make it out as a disturbance but it kept repeating.
“What was that?” Dylan’s ears perked up.
Demi stood up and looked around intently to locate the source. “I think it’s coming from the kitchen window…”
The tapping of glass continued relentlessly and the twins responded aptly. The sound lured them in. They leaned closer to the window and observed the green lawn and the cement walls of the apartment next door.
“I don’t see any-” Before the boy could even finish his sentence, a small tiny black paw startled the life out of them.
“Oh my god! Angus?!” Dylan screamed as he clasped Demi by the shoulder. “Open the window, Demi!”
She promptly brought down the plastic handle and pulled the window open.
“About time little ones.” The cat spoke in the most sophisticated manner possible, which at this point shouldn’t be a surprise but the twins still haven’t gotten used to a talking cat.
“NOO! Why is Angus talking again?!” Dylan made sure to convey his deep felt vain.
“Forsyth! About damn time you showed your face!” Demi was understandably angry from her sudden disappearance yesterday.
“My arrival today is not for explanations, we must hurry. Come with me you two.” The cat without another word jumped off the window the same way it had come and zoomed past the grass and started running adjacent to the streets.
“Hey! Wait up!” Dylan screamed as he peeped his head out of the window and watched as the cat sprinted away.
Before he could do anything he turned to Demi. With much deserved displeasure he witnessed her jump out of the window and sprinting past the front porch as well.
“What the hell?!” He screeched infuriated.
“I’ll go ahead! Lock up the house and catch up to us!”
Stranded alone in the house, Dylan had too much going on to even think straight. But regardless of his frustrations he had to do something about his sister running away and leaving him alone to deal with her carelessness.
Entirely fixated upon his phone, and running his fingers through his dark strands of straight hair, he was much too absorbed into this predicament. The call from Saturday still lingered in his mind. For some odd reason that even he couldn’t fully grasp he felt the need to know about her. This behaviour was unlike the diligent and responsible Gabbie he knew. And why must this happen right after she worked up the courage to see her family again? Questions like these plagued Ray’s mind.
William, on the other hand was mildly baffled to see Ray so worked up about this, and felt the intense urge to ask of who this person of such importance could be.
“She’s my coworker.” Although he’s a man of little words and crisp answers, this one really did not fit the description as a proper answer.
William slightly annoyed goes, “Ah! Of course! Like I didn’t know that already and haven’t said that a hundred times already…”
William was losing patience and blatantly blurted things he wouldn’t possibly say. “Why do you care so much about her…?” As he approached the end of the sentence he realised the amount of disrespect he threw at a person he wasn’t even acquainted with. He then promptly added a few more words. “…Like, Is she a good a friend or something?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe..?” He was astounded by his complicated behaviour. “Gosh, how do you make friends..?”
“I don’t know, the same way we became friends..?”
“Right…” He was forced into reminiscing their origin stories which were better off left alone to begin with.
“Anyway, who did you call?”
“Yeah! Who did you call?!” A meddlesome voice joined their conversation uninvited and was met with deathly stares from both the boys.
He continued unbothered and oblivious. “What?”
William, almost jumping from his seat, screamed at his friend. “Navi! For the last time, why are you here?”
“Because you guys are my favourite people and totally not some antisocial misfits that need a so called extroverted friend to keep pushing them around to socialise.”
William had nothing more to say than blink profusely at the overwhelmingly accurate description of their current standpoint and the dooming reality that fell from the sky and onto his shoulders.
Ray glanced at Navi and back at William. “…Who is this guy again?”
“Oh, come on! Are we still doing this?”
“Navi, leave!” William sounded one last time and Navi left with a look of disappointment.
“Was that too harsh..?”
With the nuisance out of the way William turned back to Ray to continue their conversation.
“Anyway, what does Demi have to do with this?”
“Demi’s boyfriend is Gabbie’s brother.”
“What? Kaelin is her brother! Wow… the world is a very small place …”
Four sleek black paws and a pair of converse shoes raced through the dead streets lit up by street lamps at every corner.
“Is this a good time to say I always come last during track races?” Demi announced while lifting her head up and taking in gasps of air into her lungs.
“Are you atleast half a century old?” The cat continued as it pounced past rapidly, “If not, you have lost your right to complain, Dorothy.”
“Where are we going anyway?”
“Your school. You don’t have to do anything, just stand where I tell you to and watch patiently. Also do you have good eyesight?”
“I’ve strained my eyes in multiple ways and circumstances but they proved to be way more resilient than I thought…”
“Is that a yes or a no?”
“Yesn’t.”
“I witnessed almost two centuries and this is what humanity’s vocabulary has become?”
“You don’t have to worry that’s a made up word. But humanity has come a long way since…”
“Is that so..?” Her dubious reaction was understandable and even Demi did not find the need to correct her perception of humanity because in all honesty she knew the ways of humans will always have something to be frowned upon.
After a few minutes, Demi was finally starting to notice Dylan’s absence and wondered where he had ended up.
“Why would he come? I don’t recall telling him where we are going?” Forsyth asked with genuine curiosity.
“Gasp!”
“Foolish mortal.”
“We’ve arrived. Now, please refrain from being incompetent and thick headed for once in your existence and follow me.” The cat squirmed it’s tiny body past the gates and ran across the campus.
“Alright...” Demi pretended to not hear her endless insults. She watched as Forsyth skillfully jumped past the miniature flowerbed avoiding any trampling of flowers and gripped the brick wall with her sharp feline claws. She pulled herself up on the wall and walked towards a back gate leading to the main greenhouse. After a while of waiting, Demi finally heard metal clanging and knew what to do from there.
Demi rushed towards the left of the front gate and made her way to the greenhouse’s back door.
“I didn’t even know this door existed…”
She gently slid her fingers through the tiny crack of the tinted glass door and pulled it open. Clasping tightly on the metal frame, she thought of a grand reveal of the demonic monsters straight out her nightmares that oddly enough she sometimes fascinated about. Much to her dismay it was not what she had foreseen. A dark damp room with misplaced brown boxes and dirt on the floor and the wall’s chipping away. This is why she had no idea their school even had a greenhouse to began because it was now nothing more than a storeroom collecting dust.
“How… exciting…” she mumbled after loosening up from the tension just seconds ago.
The cat seated right in front of her looked up with a look of confusion. “Your reactions… are underwhelming…”
Demi, sarcastically goes, “Oh my! An abandoned mouldy shed accompanied by a stench of manure… alluring.”
“Amusing… you can’t see it.”
Slightly alarmed, Demi finally understood the situation and regretted that she judged so carelessly. “What am I not seeing?”
“The vessel sitting right here.” The cat walked in a circle around a damp spot on the tiled floor.
As Demi also walked closer and adapted to the dark, she noticed a silhouette. She bent closer and examined a little better as the darkness gave away she pieced together what the shadow was.
“The spider…” she mumbled.
She turned to Forsyth to quickly relay what she had discovered and just as she opened her mouth, they were rudely interrupted by a blaring voice from the door.
“What’s going on?!”
Demi frightened by the voice fell on her bottom on the dirty unclean floor. She winced as she felt the unhygienic floor.
“Ah! My pants!”
“Demi! What are you doing here?!”
“Hi, Robin.” She said calmly and proceeded to tend to her pants.
Him, almost ripping out his hair, yells at her. “Did you not learn your lesson from last time?!”
“Calm down, I learnt my lesson and as a result I didn’t get caught, that is until now…” She laughed nervously.
“What am I going to do with you..?” He groaned. “Sigh… Keep this up, I’m telling Kaelin.”
She widened her eyes. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh! Yes, I would!”
She accepted defeat and rose in a weak manner. As she got up, Robin was revealed the scene behind her.
“What is a cat doing here..? And is that a… huge dead spider?”
Demi turned around to reconfirm and immediately posed a question. “You can see that..?”
“Of course, I’m not that blind without glasses…” He took it as an insult. “Wait how did you even get in here..? Don’t tell me you stole the keys-”
The sharp eyes of the cat spoke enough for Demi to realise that it was time to leave. She grabbed the cat and pushed Robin out of the room and slammed the door.
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” Robin was unable to comprehend the situation.
“Dude, trust me even I don’t know what’s happening…”
“And that’s supposed to explain your absurdity?!”
“Sandwich boy, I’ll explain everything! Now come with me; we’ve got to leave!”
This ordeal was too much of a hassle but couldn’t be left to simmer on the stove for any longer. With a reasonable explanation she had to send him away.
“Hey! Stop this fight!” A new voice echoed from far away and the sounded of running was prominent.
Robin flinched as he was pulled away by a pair of arms going under his armpit and over his shoulder. “What the heck?! Kaelin?!”
Lin with his eyes shut screamed without looking. “Stop this nonsense right now!”
Dylan for some reason was lingering behind Lin not fully understanding the situation and shot glances at Demi indicating his sheer panic and distress.
“Lin..? Dylan? What are you doing here?”