When I was young, way younger than I am today, my father used to tell me this one saying: ‘’The world is a mathematical figure. Sometimes it’s a square, sometimes a circle, maybe a triangle! But it’s always something different and changes rapidly! Remember that when someone tells you the world is a bad place, Niao.’’

 It’s been more than ten years since then and I hadn’t thought of it till now. Why would I think of it now…? ‘’Mr. Niao, Mr. Niao!!’’ I turned my head, my left eye accidentally covered by the hair I forgot to cut last week and just gave up on it afterwards, finding a little boy standing next to me -- Kokohorio -- my most recurring customer. ‘’What’s it today? Cotton candy or a waffle, boy?’’ I’m used to being kindly harsh to him, but my best friend who lives a cross the street tells me I’m just unnecessarily mean to him but I don’t see it that way. ‘’You didn’t have waffles yesterday! What gives~?!’’ Damn, the kid can be annoying sometimes…

 ‘’C’mon Hori, I told you my waffles got bought out. I restocked early this morning,’’ Is what I like telling him, but his parents don’t like it when I spoil him too much. ‘’Then, one waffle! Have it done ASAP, Mr. Niao!’’ I retreated into my candy store, the heat outside was getting annoying anyway, so Hori kind of helped me realize that. When it’s a waffle, the runt wants it with honey, when it’s cotton he wants it large and always large. He’s quite the predictable little brat but I...never mind.

 ‘’Here, you spoiled little durtbag,’’ I handed the waffle to him, exiting my shop-home. ‘’Thank you, stingy old geezer!’’ ‘’Brat! I’m not even twenty-three yet, don’t call me names!!’’ I guess I’d acquired my dad’s traits. If I’m an adult I have the right to insult people younger than me, but I’m apparently imperious and protected from insults by minors. Dad used to call it ‘’Adult Rules’’. Damn, did I hate them when I was a brat myself!

 ‘’Say, Mr. Niao, why didn’t you move your shop to one of the crowded districts? You’d get more customers and I wouldn’t have to walk so much to get candy and sweets!’’ He told me. It’s actually something Hori asks me every few weeks, thinking I’d get mad if he asks too often. ‘’You know my answer, don’t try to persuade me. It’s too loud and the old men yell too much when they get drunk in front of their stores during the afternoon,’’ I can never tell him the real reason. With how he is he’d probably refuse to leave this place and return home. He’s too clingy.

 ‘’Then...would it be fine if I came every day?’’ ...He doesn’t pay for his candy. He says is mome and dad will pay, but one is a prostitute and the other is too lazy to leave the house. You’d be confused to know his mother’s the lazy one. ‘’Nah, you’re coming once every few weeks,’’ I tell him what’s on my mind, as always.

 We sat there as he whined and frowned for a while whens suddenly, ‘’Move! Clear the streets!!’’ I don’t get to finish my bottle of zucchini juice. ‘’Old man Kokoyimo! Get back inside and stop rambling your fairy tales to everyone around here!!’’ The geezer keeps shoving this story about the demons down our throats every time he leaves his run-down home. Sadly, this is the first time Hori’s hearing him. The sad part comes from the fact that he’s seeing him at all.

 ‘’Bwawa?! Nioi, my boy, you’re here?!’’ Ah blunder, his house’s back faces my shop, so he can’t see me when he comes out if he doesn’t walk around. I guess I yelled impulsively. ‘’Who’s that? Your grandpapa?’’ He asks me as I stand up, changing the calm, relaxed sitting position I had found myself in with my legs crossed. Old man Kokoyimo poked his head out from around the corner. One of his eyes had taken a turn for the worse a little after his spouse passed on. I helped him out after that and he ended up taking a liking to me, the guy who runs the candy shop he never buys anything from. But I guess he comes to drink his alcohol here; his stories aren’t always dumb, but this one sure is.

 ‘’Come on, old man, no need to yell about you ‘demons’ and whatnot! You can come talk about it, right..?’’ I ask him as I walk over to him. ‘’It isn’t just a fantasy, my boy. I’ve told you, haven’t I; about that one time I saw them?’’ His words are weird, or rather, I’m weird for finding them weird. The world’s quite the square today, it seems -- It’s a rugged square with no equivalent edges, all bitten out like that. ‘’C’mon now, I have a kid with me. Don’t get him all scared with these stories. We’ll talk over sake tonight, ‘kay?’’ I’m hoping he leaves it alone, I’m hoping he doesn’t get me in trouble with Hori’s parents. Too lazy to deal with that. ‘’No, no, of course I will tell the young lad. Don’t you realise the danger that could emerge if people don’t learn about the arriva--’’ ‘’Cut it out already!’’ I yelled so loudly that I even heard Hori let out a ‘’Huh?’’ I guess I didn’t sleep enough last night and was on edge. The misfortunes keep adding on, one after the other, trying to annoy me.

 ‘’I apologize for being tenacious, but you have to believe me, Niao. The other old men don’t, they’re too old to understand me!!’’ You’re old too, dumbass!! ‘’W-well, maybe the ‘demons’ won’t come…! You should just rest, alright? I’ll keep you company later tonight if you want?’’ Please understand, old man Kokoyimo! Please understand for once, that I don’t wanna deal with you today… ‘’Mr. Niao?’’ And there it goes -- something’s tugging on my sleeve. I guess a messed up smile is all I could make. But, of course, and as always, I was making the situation bigger than it is. When there was no reason to be nervous, I would sweat out a waterfall faster than you could think. Maybe that’s where me and dad seperate in terms of thought process.

 ‘’What’s your name, old sir?’’ The face the old man made was just priceless. It was like he got jealous of Hori for being young. ‘’Kokoyimo is my name, child. How’s your d--’’ ‘’I heard something about stories and demons! I wanna hear about that! It sound so cool, you know!’’ Hori, you bastard, why can’t you do some small talk and go home?! ‘’Shall I, Niao?’’ Idiot old man, what am I supposed to say. I just nodded idiotically. As if there was any chance of avoiding this conversation. ‘’At least, let’s talk at the store. We could drink something and not have to stand in the sun.’’ Is this old guy trying to get off with free candy? ‘Cause I don’t sell wine, sake or anything else aside from juice in terms of things to drink.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

 Eventually we sat down, and he started telling his story. I was mostly averting my eyes and staring at the road leading to the forest right next to my store, having to move my hair all the time. I hate hair, it’s everywhere on the human body and it constantly itches when it’s hot outside or inside.

 Kokoyimo went on to tell Hori about the ‘’demons’’. It just sounded too amazing to be real. ‘’Powerful limbs, strong enough to break rock,’’ and ‘’Horrifying eyes that when make you feel like your kindness and good will is being sucked out!’’. He’s ridiculous, this guy,and the kid got terrified. In the end, the old man went home, looking disappointed since he didn’t get drunk, but I can understand how it is, maybe not exactly but losing a precious person you’ve devoted yourself to...hurts, greatly…

 In the end, the brat and I stayed at my store after the sun began to set; the leecher was too scared to walk home by himself and begged me to stay. Of course I let him stay, like I could let him go home alone. And him being with his shitty parents always worried me. Maybe he started coming more and more often because he trusted me, or maybe it was because he just knows I can’t say no to him. I’m pathetic, honestly. Talking bad about people behind their backs, thinking their annoying -- It’s just apathetic to me, I think?

 ‘’Come on, here’s the futon. Lay down and don’t get up without permission, the floor makes noise and you’ll wake me up,’’ I told him. ‘’But if I don’t get up, I can’t get permissi--’’ ‘’Goodnight~!’’ My futon was on the other side of the room, pretty much at the edge. We were in my large ‘’bedroom,’’ which if I didn’t know better would call a thick plank of wood supported by a few beams above the first floor. Nothing interesting.

 I’ve told Hori not to ask me questions about the location of the shop and how it’s bad for selling candy or whatever, but that isn’t the point. I can’t really go without thinking about it every night -- Before my dad got himself killed somewhere in a neighboring country while doing his job, he always said he liked the forest. Of course, I couldn’t get the house built inside the forest itself and it’s better this way. Selling my products isn’t really that important, I eat them all the time and I end up with no lollipops and that’s fine. Dad wanted to live this way, so i’ll live like this in his stead. ‘Cause that deserves it, just maybe not by a failure, but he deserved his wish to be granted.

                                                                         ‘’RUN! Everyone run away!!’’

 My eyes opened, almost as if forced open. Hori was looking down on me, yelling at me, looking like he was yelling his heart out but I was still in my wake-up period. ‘’I told you...not to get up without p...er--’’ ‘’Get up, Mr. Niao! Please, there’re demons outside!! Demons!’’ His words entered my years finally, forcing me to process them along with the sound coming from downstairs. It was just yelling, overpowered by yelling, which was overpowered by Hori’s yelling. ‘’The hell are you talking about…?’’ I pushed myself up with my hands, moving the hair off my face. The little jerk practically dragged my to the hole on the second floor, that pathetic excuse for a window, cut out unevenly. It came into view. Red. It’s all just...red! It’s blood!! I almost couldn’t keep my childishly high-pitched scream on the inside as I saw it, but I felt paralyzed, so that scream felt trapped inside my throat by some barrier.

 I have to remain calm. Who’d do this? Some murderer? A deranged person? A demon? No, impossible! I almost couldn’t think at all, like my mind was forbidding it. My heart was beating. When dad died, I didn’t get to see it -- the blood! What now, what now?! I’ve got a child with me and I don’t know if this has happened everywhere, or just around here! Either way, there’s probably only one option: The Forest.

 Without telling him anything, most likely out of stress, I grabbed Hori’s wrist and pulled his whole, rather light body upwards, holding him in my arms. I rushed down the stairs, almost falling down. The thing I didn’t realise was that Hori was talking to me, yelling even. I’d tuned it out completely. ‘’A waterfall of sweat,’’ my ass! This ia  goddamn ocean under my pajamas!

 I didn’t think about it, didn’t look around and just rushed out the door and headed for the forest with all the strength my legs could muster in my hazy state. I can only think, ‘’I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!’’ How does the color red become so horrifying the moment you realise it’s blood? Was it even blood? No, it was! There might be others, I should turn back and loo-- No, the forest’s right there, and the kid takes the highest priority! But, maybe, the old geezer’s back there. ‘’Damn it all!’’ I turned around immediately, feeling as if I had stabbed my feet into the ground to stop myself from running.

 Turning my head, I found...nothing, or rather, everything. There was that house, and that one, even the third, but...the people; they weren’t screaming anymore. Something caught my eye immediately. From around the corner leading to Kokoyimo’s house, emerged a human. ‘’Hey, over here!’’ I yelled at the figure I saw, seeing as I couldn’t make it out perfectly. As it looked my way, I began wishing I hadn’t let out that yell. Just like he had told me, it felt like I was becoming desperate and depressed. My legs were shaking, my heart began to ache. Yes, a demon, for sure. I can’t deny it, no matter how right or wrong I am. It’s a demon, my mind made it up, my mind accepted it, my entire body accepted it. It only took a single blink from me to realise: I have to run. And so, I ran. Just ran. I didn’t have a goal, I didn’t have anywhere I was heading to, but I wanted to be as far away as possible. Hori’s voice began more and more near, I was hearing it more properly. ‘’We’re not being followed!’’ He shouted at me, sounding relieved as he obviously noticed my hands shaking from carrying him. That night, at that late hour, with that pretty moon up in the sky I couldn’t even look at, I saw a demon, just like how Old man Kokoyimo claimed to have seen back when he was younger. However, we just kept going down this path, not knowing where it led. It was a night of nightmares and we were going to continue walking together.

End.

One-shot.