#i just figured out like a dum dum cannibalism counts too so

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | The Wolf

i don’t know how to explain, but this is another one of those chapters i have dreamed of writing for ages, so get ready for some things to turn up 

remember this is a first draft and only has minor edits, but enjoy! comments and reception are always appreciated. 

- 

“Oliver is weird.” Ayu crouched back to the alley wall with his sketchbook. 

“What makes you say that?” Annette asked, braiding her long strands of hair together. 

The tired-eyed boy bobbed his head down, contemplating the next words.

Wouldn’t Oliver not want anyone to know?

“He- he needs a lot of help.”

Annette’s eye curved up. “Like, mental problems help?”

“That too.”

The girl rested her head upon her knees. “Is it a Black Sun gang thing you don’t want me to know about?”

Ayu chucked his pencil to the stuff-pile. “Actually, I don’t even know if it has to do with that or not.”

“Wow. That’s new,” she placed back a finger she has on the ground. “So, how’s that going for you then?”

Ayu puffed his face in pondering of her question, his cheeks growing a wrong shade of red as he held air. He blew out, “God, I don’t know I’m doing anymore. This is just wrong.” He slapped his hands against his head. “I mean, I don’t think any of this is my fault but- would it be if I let something… really, really bad happen?”

She added another finger. “Depends. Do you have good intentions?”

Ayu slipped down onto the floor. “Do you think I know if I have good intentions anymore? Almost everything I do ends up fucking itself over.”

“Well,” she drew a circle on the ground. “You don’t have to make a decision now, don’t you?”

He covered his face up with his hoodie, enjoying the new scent before it wore off. “No…”

“Then that can be your answer for now. Unless the time comes or something extremely bad happens like you said.” She scuffed up his hair. “You can just go with the flow for now and think about it in the meantime.”

Ayu matted out the mess after. “I guess you’re right.”

“Hope that settles itself soon if ya don’t want me involved.” Annette grabbed a deck of cards to the side of her. “We can make it special next week by bringing dominos,” she mumbled. 

“Annette, can I text Oliver?”

She whipped her head back to him. “We haven’t given him a walkie yet?”

“Forgot to ask you at the mall.”

“Fiddlesticks,” she snapped. “Fine, just don’t go snooping around.” She handed him the phone with Oliver’s number already on the page. The picture on the side set Ayu unsettled with how unfittingly humorous it was.

He typed using his index finger and spelled out every word until autocorrect fixed up everything. 

It’s me Ayu

Do you wanna come over soon? Or when you don’t have stuff to do? (2:33pm)

Not right now (2:35pm)

“Are you gonna stay on my phone for a while? I got War set up for you.”

Ayu shushed her. 

You busy or something? (2:35pm)

“I should use this to practice spelling,” Ayu muttered.

“Not that bad of an idea,” Annette replied. In the corner of Ayu’s eye, she squinted her eyes against the art in a single card. 

Yeah, I’m kinda busy. Dying both physically and mentally at the moment. (2:37pm)

“Fuck.” 

“What’s he saying?” Annette chirped in. She peeped behind Ayu at the phone in question. 

“Not now.” He shoved her aside. 

Oh… do you wanna talk with me while? (2:38pm)

No. (2:38pm)

“Shit, shit, shit,” he whispered to himself. 

Then text me if you want anything. Annette can just talk to me on the walkie if you do later (2:40pm)

Okay (2:43pm)

Ayu sighed and threw his head back at the wall. 

“I hate it when they say ‘Okay’,” Annette commented. 

He lowered his eyes back at her looking at the screen and handed back her phone. “Here. Delete the conversation.”

“Wha- Why?”

“Just do it,” he ordered.

Icon sounds rang as she taped through options. “Can we at least play one game before I have to go?” She scooted a set of cards to the boy. 

Ayu glanced against the thin slices of paper. “You just wanna have fun, don’t you?”

“Not really,” Annette replied. “I just don’t want you to worry is all.”

***

“It’s been two hours, Lillie.” Ayu laid against his stuff-pile. “And I feel like he’s still dying.”

“What would you do if he was already dead?”

Ayu scoffed. “Like hell would I know. I learned all his ‘I wanna die’ stuff like two days ago and figured out he eats people two weeks ago. Those are two very different things and I don’t know how to feel about both.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“Do you think I could come up with an answer right now?”

She chuckled. “I suppose you’re right. It’s just that Oliver’s a bit more interesting than the other monsters, isn’t he?”

“Don’t say that,” Ayu reminded. “At least… don’t think of it as a fact.”

“I wonder if you could be considered a monster too.”

Ayu snapped, “Why would I be a monster?”

“You’re the reason they’re here, right?” She joked, “Oh, what if your first wish is the reason why he’s here now?”

The boy blinked up, mouth in silence. “Fuck…” He attempted to face-palm, only to sloppily hit himself in the face with his strength, hissing and repeating, “Fuck, I didn’t even think of that!” A well of tears heated up from the pain, but the guilt overpowered it all. 

Lillie gasped. Her voiced morph to that of a child as she spoke, “Ayu! Don’t do that!”

He smiled at her young voice through his tears. “You don’t have to worry, Lil. I heal fast,” he sniffed. He waved his hand across the air, hoping to be able to grab the girl’s hand. Though all he was met with was the smoke of Obodo. 

He sighed as his surroundings greeted him with traffic again.

The sting from his hit rang throughout his entire body. He blanketed a cold hand on it again. With the other hand, he wiped up the droplets on his face. “God, damn it,” he whimpered. 

Through his sobbing, he grabbed his journal and pencil yet again to the newest page. 

November 10th, 201X

I fucked up. 

The screeches of a walkie talkie’s static cut his train of thought.

“Ayu? You’re not asleep, right? Ayu?”

He shook his head and cleared his throat before answering. “What’s up?”

“The ceiling– ah– Oliver just texted me, or you technically.”

Shit. “What’d he say?”

“Kinda vague but he just said that he’s coming.”

Ayu blinked. “Wait, right now?”

“Twenty minutes ago. Just checked my phone and yeah sorry about that.”

He swatted his hand back to his almost bruise. “Okay then, gotta look decent. Bye,” he rushed and hung up. 

“Fuck,” he groaned. “Akeldama! I swear to God just help me for once.” 

“For a wish?” 

“For a favor,” he whined. “Can you just hide this thing in front of Oliver, please?”

“Why should I,” he asked. 

“Because you’re the one who did the favor of hiding my entire identity from the world and this is just a small bruise, not even my eye!” He hissed at nobody.

“Ha, I thought you’d be capable enough to do it yourself at this point.”

Ayu clenched his fists. “Come on. Can you just do it already?”

“Do it yourself.”

“Wh-,” he pulled his hair. “You asshole!”

Akeldama chuckled. “You shan’t need to panic over it. Besides you better shush your mouth; Oliver’s about to arrive.”

Ayu blabbered out gibberish in reaction. “Damn it, Akeldama why do you,” he jabbered while matting his bangs over the mark. 

Two steps echoed at the alley’s opening. “…Ayu?”

The boy turned around, knees wobbling in his crouched position. What stood ahead of him was as expected. Oliver’s small figure shadowed over Ayu as his breathing quickened. “Hey,” he stuttered, his eyes crooked in greeting. 

Oliver’s hood hid majority of his face. He stepped down next to Ayu without any words and rested his head upon his arms and knees. 

Ayu spoke out after two minutes of nothing. “How’re you doing?”

“Tired,” he replied. “Hungry and tired.”

“Then you haven’t…”

“No,” he answered. “I didn’t even want to go here but I did unconsciously.”

Ayu shook his head. “How does that even work?”

“I still don’t know after four years.” He pulled down his hood more. “Just be careful. If I go unconscious for an even longer time then that’s when it’s too late.”

Ayu chewed on his cheek. “Am I gonna know when that happens?”

“No. That’s why it sucks.” He muffled, “and I’m sorry for that.” He faced away from Ayu.

The black-haired boy tensed. Anything that happens won’t be that bad though. “How much does it hurt?”

“You wanna know,” he groaned. 

Ayu nodded. 

“… Life is burning and my body is aching all over,” he stated. “And there’s a pit in my chest and stomach that keeps pounding every single second that makes it even worse.”

Ayu made a hum and nodded. A cold sweat dripped from the corner of his head. “Good to know.” 

A loud horn blasted throughout the streets following with a police siren. Ayu bolted his eyes up at the sound; however, as he strayed his eyes to Oliver, his shaken hands pulled down on his hood, covering up his entire face. 

Ayu’s expression closed up. 

“Oliver, why’re you hiding your face?”

 The covered-up kid said no words; he sat still against his now crossed up arms. Only a murmur could be heard to Ayu. “You can look yourself. Don’t think there’s any point of hiding it from you.”

You are right now though, he retorted. With a hesitant hand, Ayu slip the hood off Oliver’s head.

His face was that of a fantasy. He kept his eyes shut however his skin deteriorated from his eyelids to his cheeks. His veins carried through with a clear black against his pale brown skin. The black markings crept throughout down to his neck and further to his hands as Ayu gazed. Soon, the cursed child opened up his eyes, stricken with fear. They weren’t lavished with a soft green; they were painted over with a bloody red while the white morphed to a musty yellow. 

“Holy fuck,” he breathed.

Oliver averted his stare and sighed. “It gets worse as time goes on. Usually starts the day I have to eat.”

“Can… can anyone else see this?”

Oliver shook his head. “No. Like I guessed, you seem to be the only one.”

Ayu held no reply. The sight of someone in a state like that… God knows if I’m the one who made this happen.

He pondered over a turnover of the situation. Though, all he could turn to was a half-assed solution. 

“Since no one can actually see you like this,” he started, “do you wanna go somewhere? Like the park or something?”

Oliver stared back at him with dead eyes. 

“I mean- only if you feel like it. We don’t have to-”

He nodded. “Sure.”

“Wait,” Ayu paused. “Yes?”

Oliver bit his bruised lip from what Ayu could tell. “We can go there.”

“I- alright then.” He jumped up, dragging Oliver up by the arm. He grew an off-beat smile. “Let’s get going.”

His face’s bruise still stung. 

***

The day at Felle Park went by with only clouds striking over. There was no change with the children running around and playing and yelling all over. 

Ayu let Oliver to cling on to him as support while he stumbled across the sidewalks. The extra weight was only a feather for the twig. Ayu spoke to him in casual talk, both waiting and receiving no replies. 

It was only when they entered into the playground did Oliver break away from Ayu. 

“Huh?” 

Oliver stumbled and wobbled across his path. Ayu, with only a question mark forming in his head, followed. 

“Oliver, what’d you wanna do here?”

The kid plopped his way onto the swig-set. 

Ayu cocked his head as he still got no reply. 

Oliver dug up his feet against the dirty mulch. And his swing swung itself back and forth with barely any force. 

Ayu shrugged and sat next to him on another swig. By a big kick, he already set himself flying. 

Throughout a minute, he launched himself off the swing without a shred of patience. 

There wasn’t much to remember by; there were other things at the park that was more exciting in Ayu’s favor. He looked back at Oliver, still rocking his swing without effort, digging himself a little grave for his feet. 

Ayu walked up towards him and sighed. “Don’t you wanna go on the slides or the merry-go-rounds?” He muttered to himself, “The merry-go-round is my favorite so-”

“I’m fine.” He answered in a mute tone. “I just go on the swings since I can think better. Plus, moving a lot makes it hurt more.”

Ayu’s brows furrowed. “Then why did you let me take you to the park?”

“I blacked out a little while you were asking, Ayu. Besides, it seemed like you wanted to.” He assured, “Now if you go and play then I disappear on you, don’t worry since I’m probably off eat-”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Ayu paced. “Oliver, I’m trying my best to be a good person for you. I really am. But if you aren’t working together with me then… then-”

“Why don’t we go to the forest?”

Ayu paused. Oliver’s question lingered at the tip of his mouth. “What?”

“It’s quiet there, unlike here where everything is too loud.” He lifted his head up with a small crease of a smile. “Just nice there in general, yanno?”

Ayu leered at him. The words sat there in front of him, all suspicions and hunches charged up in between. 

It’s a trap, isn’t it? 

“Oliver, you remember the last time we were there?”

“That doesn’t matter,” he scoffed. “I like the silence anyways.”

“… You sure about that?” 

He nodded in boring eyes. “Yes. The children here are rather annoying in reality.”

“That isn’t him.”

“Ah,” Ayu took a step back. “Let me just… think about it for a second.”

“Why don’t we just go already,” he spat. “It’s an easy question, Ayu.”

“I-”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to be a good person for me?” 

Ayu looked back. What exactly’ll happen if we do?

“He’ll try and eat you,” Lillie replied in his head. 

But what if I can find a way to stop him? It’s not like I’ll actually die from him. 

“Are you truly risking that?”

“As long as Akeldama doesn’t do anything,” Ayu sighed under his breath. 

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” he brushed off. “But let’s go to the forest like you said. 

“Thanks.” He stood up, cleaning up his cardigan from the mulch. He stepped his way towards the gate entrance of the forest. “Come on, Ayu. The playground really is hurting my ears a little.”

Please be fine. “Yeah, sure,” he replied with wary eyes but followed. 

*

The two walked across the woods of Felle with steps rigged from one another. Ayu babbled, but also attempted to study Oliver despite how distracted his ramblings grew. 

“So, you think of Lucia, right? She’s like a bad kid after Lexi died. But really, the only reason why she got mad after her death was because of her bloodline with Aria and Coco.”

“Mhm,” Oliver replied. 

“She was pissed enough to just leave the group so that meant Evie and Hiro had to do the rest of the work, which that just caused an entire mess to happen.”

“…That sounds really interesting, Ayu. I like it.” Oliver gave him a warm grin. 

Jokes on you, my writing is shit. 

The grass they stepped upon crackled onto the muddy ground. Rocks scattered throughout the pathway leaving tripping spots. 

“Are you sure ‘bout that, Ollie? I’d say my stuff is too confusing.” He scratched his head, kicking a rock and waiting for a reaction. 

Oliver perked up. “It’s not that confusing, Ayu. Just takes a good mind to understand.” He chuckled, “Like solving a puzzle you can say.”

Ayu glared. “You’re just saying that because you’re smart.”

Oliver turned to him with lowered eyes. “If you’re saying I’m smart for understanding, wouldn’t that make you smart for creating it?” 

“It’s not that I’m smart; I just don’t have any other life,” Ayu retorted. 

Oliver only giggled. And Ayu almost found it genuine. Something gratifying to hear, in truth.

The trees’ whistles were absent compared to Ayu’s walk prior. Solely crickets and cicadas chirped in the distance. The disappearance of the cars, the crowds, the animals, the flower songs, it all isolated Ayu with what only appeared to be Oliver.

They walked on with the redhead leading the path. He passed logs with ease; he stepped along the embedded footprints through his every movement. 

Ayu just tripped over a little mud valley. 

Oliver smirked at him. “You haven’t been here often, haven’t you?” 

Ayu lifted his head to see a blackened hand in front of him. He shook his head with eyes shut. “Just blame getting distracted.”

He dragged him up. “Doesn’t matter now. We’re almost there anyways.” 

This is it. “Almost where?”

Oliver walked down further. “You’ll see… right here.” He shoved off a branch of a tree, opening a recollection. 

The same stump laid barren in the middle of the dirty field. No rays of sun fell upon them as they entered. Rusty stains of blood still dressed up the grass while all the clumps of meat had disappeared. 

Ayu’s mouth ran without him. “Oliver, why did you bring me here?”

The kid went to sit on the small stump. He mouthed silent words with a blank face: 

“Sorry, friend.”

In only a blink, he was out of Ayu’s sight. 

“Shit.” Ayu turned in all directions to find the fellow. “So that’s how he does it, huh?” He took a deep breath then a big gulp. 

His eyes twitched to every direction. “S-so is it gonna be some magic?”

No reply. 

“A knife?”

Silence. 

“Your damn teeth…?” He huffed. 

His heart raced; his breathing quickened in impatience; his hands shook with anticipation. 

He whimpered out. “Oliver, I know you’re trying to kill me right now but…” He winced at pressing his bruise. “If I ever did anything, and if I ever do anything, I’m sorry. I’m just a dumbass.”

He cried to the air as his eyes burned. “I’m not gonna die but I don’t wanna hurt you. I don’t care if you can’t even hear this.” He paced his way to stand on the stump. “I’m sorry that you’re in pain; I’m sorry that your life is like this now; and I’m sorry if it’s all my fault!”

His last words echoed through the field. 

However, a rustle in the bush replied to him. 

He whipped his head back at the sound. The bush remained mute until a familiar voice rang in Ayu’s head. 

With a stone-cold voice. All he spoke to him was, “Get ready,” before the beast pounced. 

In a split second, a large yet slim figure leaped out of the bushes towards Ayu. It threatened the boy with its mouth and fangs open wide in front of him. 

Ayu jumped out of the way with lucky initiation. He tumbled against the ground through his fall. Flinching through his now scratched up limbs, he pushed himself up and his eyes met what was growling at him. 

The figure was covered up in black fur, marching around the terrain with its boney paws and cutting up grass with its bladed claws. Its glare shined bright with vermillion while a dark mist eroded from all over its wolf-like body. 

“Holy fuck,” Ayu gasped. 

The wolf pounced yet again at Ayu, only for him to jump out of every attack. Left and right, he played mouse for the beast as it continued to grow more and more vicious with its snarls. 

“Okay, what the hell can I do here,” he panted. 

“Beat it,” he replied. 

Ayu’s legs ran weak the longer the tag game went on. His late signal began buzzing in his head as he cursed it. 

Time dwindled while the wolf started to match his speed. 

“What the hell do you mean by just beat it? Like-” He brought himself to a halt before another attempt of clobbering him. 

The boy held his breath as the wolf got closer; and right before it could make a bite, Ayu socked him. 

The wolf flew off to the side of the field. It jerked against its injury and whimpered from the pain. 

Ayu’s lifted his body up from impact. His ears grew white noise; his mind turned into static. He stared blankly at the creature with dead eyes. 

“Beat it before it gets to others, Ayu.” The repeated command was the only thing he could here. 

He strolled his way to the monster, weak and immobile. It went on to cry for its pathetic life. He started with a kick, making it grimace, then kicked it again countless of times. He was deaf to its whines and pouts, he only watched it curl up and struggle to defend itself.

It took until the thing deteriorated into a black form, deep and pure in an abyss, and it transformed back into a small boy. He shook and whimpered against the hits. 

Ayu froze. 

The boy sat up in quivering arms. In only a second he vomited a dark red liquid. His skin paled and his eyes widened of shock. He pulled back his burgundy hair, no speed aiming him, just staring at the pool of blood. But like an alarm, his eyes darted up to a stilled Ayu, who only stared back with burning tears. 

“Y-you’re still here…”

Ayu got down to where Oliver sat and clung onto his shoulders to form a hug. 

He cried, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He repeated his apologies to no end.

Oliver’s movements weren’t there, no flinches, no fidgets. He mumbled out few words. “You’re not dead…”

Ayu held him back, still holding his shoulders. “I know! But I hurt you because of it like an idiot!”

“No… no, that was fine,” he argued. “You were the first to ever- wait did I make that bruise-”

“That doesn’t matter!” He sniffed, “You’re the one that’s hurt because of me.”

Oliver’s face softened. “That’s more impressive than anything, Ayu.”

“No, it isn’t!” He whined, and he didn’t stop until his throat clogged up. 

Oliver’s voice returned. “Ayu, are you choking!?” 

He coughed, “No- just,” coughed again, “crying a bit too much I think.”

“Oh god.” Oliver pulled a hair strand. “I forgot how dehydrated you are.”

“It’s fine-”

Oliver stood up immediately. “Here. I’ll get water for you.” He flinched and pressed on his stomach. “Christ- I’ll just be paying you a favor of being, well, alive.” He dashed off without Ayu’s ability to speak. 

“Wait!” His voice rasped and burned his throat. “You don’t need to do that!” He stumbled up and ran after him. 

***

Once they gathered themselves up, Ayu and Oliver traveled back to the alleyway. The streets still filled with chatter and city smoke worked alongside the sky to keep the world grey. 

“How did you manage to buy a six pack?” Ayu sat beside Oliver. He clenched on a water bottle in his hand and sipped upon it.

“Easy: water’s cheap and I always have spare change in my pockets,” Oliver noted. His arm wrapped around his stomach; Ayu stared at the motion. 

He questioned, “You’re more awake now, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “You woke me up pretty- not entirely harsh but you were just trying to save yourself.” He hissed at the wound. “I’m still probably gonna get sleepy again after a while so… might as well tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

Oliver fidgeted a hand on a loose cardigan string. His markings still laid across his body and the rims of his eyes started bleeding into a black as well. “Coincidentally enough, the day you first saw me like that, I met someone while I was unconscious… I’ve been talking to them since then ‘cause it seems as if she knows what’s going on with me.”

You mean the guy you talked to a few times? “Who is that?”

He sighed, “From what she claims, she’s my biological mom.”

Ayu choked on his own water. “What?”

“That’s how I know the fact that I won’t change.” Ayu caught the kid’s watery eyes. 

“… But what if-”

“And apparently,” Oliver rambled, “she just wanted me to live a ‘normal life’ for seven years straight until it all hit me like a brick but even when it started, she’s hasn’t been able to talk with me until now.”

An idea circulated in Ayu as Oliver spoke. “W-wait, so does she know your entire situation?”

“Yeah.”

“And just can’t say it directly?”

“Probably.”

Ayu took a chug. “Can’t you ask her about how to deal with this then? Like when you attacked me, it looked like you were using some power.”

“That’s right,” Oliver added. “I forgot but, what exactly happened while I was asleep?”

“Attacked me in a wolf form. Thought you were another monster like a moron and almost tried to kill you I think.”

“Oh God.” Oliver placed a hand over his head. 

“Still sorry ‘bout that.”

“Still more of a me-problem.”

Ayu cleared his throat. “Okay but yeah, you may be less sad if you actually know what you’re doing in the first place from her.”

Oliver remained silent, then took a deep breath. “… How did I not think of that before?”

“I dunno,” Ayu shrugged. “Maybe we’re both dumbasses.”

“Yeah, guess you’re right.”

No replies or comments were made for a good four minutes. Ayu wandered in thought to reach for another question. 

“You said your mom isn’t allowed to explain things, right?”

He nodded. 

“Who’s not allowing her,” Ayu asked.

Oliver left his hand on his chin. “She doesn’t say their name, just that they’re their leader.”

“Their leader? Of what?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that too,” Oliver rushed. “My mom’s like 4 centuries old and lives in an immortal society that has to kill for their monthly membership payment.”

Ayu stilled. “Okay, what the fuck is your family tree?”

“Based on what I can tell,” Oliver stated, “fucked.”

Ayu sided his lips. “The leader’s the one who makes the rules for ‘em, right?”

“Yep.”

He took another bottle of water. “Do you think I can come with you at some point?”

Oliver raised a brow. 

“I feel like the leader may have something to do with the monsters.”

“And why do you think that?”

… There’s no evidence, huh? “Just a hunch. Like, a vague dude who’s some cruel ruler? Sounds like a normal villain.” 

Oliver squinted his eyes towards him, but shrugged. “Guess that can make sense.” 

In a split second, Oliver shook forward from the alley wall, making a yelp. “Fuck!” He pressed on his shirt. 

Ayu paled, his eyelids pinching up. “You still need to eat… don’t you?”

“It’s fine.” Oliver raised his hand towards Ayu. “I probably have enough strength to just- …”

“Just what? Eat?”

“… Kinda.” Oliver sighed. “I forgot to tell you one last thing.”

Ayu bit his cheek. “What?”

His hand rested on his left arm, grabbing it. “I’ve had my black sun mark for a while now. But, it popped up somewhere that I didn’t wanna show.”

Ayu took a glance at his movements. “Your arm, right?”

He nodded. “I should explain… Remember how I starve a lot?”

“Yeah?”

“I uh, usually tend to treat myself when I can’t handle it much longer.” He trembled. “After I think the first year, I started realizing how good… it tastes. But I didn’t wanna hurt anyone. So,” He lifted up his sleeve. 

What bared on his wrist, right on top of a vein, was his black sun mark; however, further down his mark varied in streaks of scars and cuts. The blood seeped of violent reds and purples. And through some courses of marks, black began to show through the blood scabs. 

Ayu gawked at the amount of lines made by the child. Thoughts ran throughout his little brain and screamed out to him from the sight. You’re the reason.

It almost brought him to tears again.

“The blood helps me distract myself.”

Ayu lifted his head up to Oliver, concern and guilt written all over his face. Though, Oliver faced away, and Ayu couldn’t assume any other face aside from loathing.  

Ayu took a gulp. He whimpered, “Stop… don’t do that anymore, please.”

“It’s alright, Ayu. It heals right after I get some food.”

“But that’s too much of a risk, Ollie.”

“Trust me,” Oliver reassured. “It’s okay that I do this. I’m careful about it.”

He huffed, “You have a damn good reason for starving yourself. This’ll just make it too much.” He grabbed the spot where the sun mark was. 

Oliver squeaked. “Ayu- You’re holding on too tight again.”

“Promise me to just- …” Ayu breathed, lessening his grip. “Just do it less.”

He let go of Oliver, face ridden in regret. 

Oliver swiped his arm back and covered up the scars with his sleeve again. “I… thank you.” He clenched onto his shirt as he stood up, already walking away from the conversation and Ayu. “I should probably get going.”

Ayu avoided his eyes again. “Are you going to…?”

“Not sure,” he answered. “I probably will eventually.”

“Right.” He nodded it off. 

They stayed in position for a time’s notice. 

“Sorry about hitting you,” Oliver added. “… See ya.”

Ayu didn’t watch as he walked away. He instead covered up his bruise again, shame whistling out of his entire being.

“Bye.”

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Crimson Capture | November 1st | A Mother | A Demon | A Child | Next >>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 9 #swearing warning #starvation warning #marking warning? #dunno what to call it #scar warning #animal cruelty for two seconds kinda #blood warning #violence warning #i just figured out like a dum dum cannibalism counts too so #cannibalism mentions #bst ayu #bst annette #bst lillie #bst oliver

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

halloween special 2019

(Or, Halloween Special 2027, because this is set immediately after Turnabout Academy but contains no reference to it besides the fact that Juniper exists.)

A Fae AU side story. A classic meme of the autumnal season gets a cannibal joke twist, and the real horror story is the friends we made along the way. Written with the profoundest apologies to the professor from whom I took an entire semester course on Edgar Allan Poe. 

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It still feels like the crack of dawn, after the week they’ve had, but dawn is admittedly later in late October, and the sun is already risen, so it’s not early at all. It’s no one’s problem but Phoenix’s own that his brain is still zombified. Trucy woke him up, flinging her things all around the apartment to get ready to head out: Juniper has joined her trick-or-treating group that already consisted of Trucy, Vera, Jinxie, Athena, and Pearl, and Pearl still doesn’t have a costume, and now neither does Juniper, and Vera hasn’t finished making hers, and it’s T-minus two days until Halloween.

So he scrambled some eggs for his daughter and ushered her out the door after making her promise to say hi to all of the other girls for him, and then he crawled back into bed. Barely three minutes after, his phone rang. That was marginally better than his phone ringing once he had fallen back asleep, but this deprives him of the chance of going back to sleep at all, probably, and actually it’s not better. Phoenix doesn’t know why he thought that. He squints at the tiny screen on his phone to see that an impossible amount of symbols, including what looks like some Japanese characters, a pentagram, and a simplified pixel art hand making a middle finger. 

“Hello, Maya.”

“Niiick! I need you to settle a dispute!”

Phoenix groans. “Between who?”

“Hello.” Iris’ voice comes through as clear as Maya’s, clearer than humans ever are on phone calls. Magical speakerphone. Phoenix drops his face into his pillow. 

“Iris says that the only one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories to involve cannibalism was his one weird-ass novel that he never finished. But he’s gotta have had more than that right? He strikes me as a cannibalism kinda dude.”

“I don’t know,” Phoenix mumbles into his pillow, and then, resigned to his fate, he lifts his head and repeats clearly, “I don’t know. I’m not the literature guy.” He knows Shakespeare, and what he knows about Shakespeare is that he needs to keep Maya away from it, else she might decide that Puck is a role model. “Iris would have more of an idea than me.”

“Nick! You can’t take your ex’s side over me!”

Iris giggles in the background. “This is an argument about objective facts, Maya,” Phoenix says. “I’m not ‘taking sides’ personally.”

“Okay, but, Montressor was definitely saving Fortunado down there to chill him to a good eating temperature and then have him as a snack with the Amontillado. Like that’s gotta be why he killed him that way.”

That’s one of the few Poe stories Phoenix knows. He can answer this one. “There was no Amontillado,” he says wearily. “That was the whole point of the story, Maya. He lied about having the fancy wine to get Fortunado down to the catacombs because that was the best place to kill him quietly. There wasn’t any cask of Amontillado.”

Maya gasps. “What?” She sounds so betrayed that Phoenix almost laughs and almost feels bad. “He lied? He can’t lie!”

Now Phoenix does laugh. “What, did you think he was fae because elaborately killing someone for some unmentioned slights is a fae thing to do?” She sounds more scandalized at the lie part that the murder part, which, for anyone even slightly versed in fae culture, does make sense. 

“Well—” Maya sputters. “Yeah!” She heaves an exaggeratedly loud sigh. “I guess The Cask of Amontillado really isn’t a story that implies cannibalism.”

“There was other wine in the wine cellar where he walled up Fortunado,” Iris says. “Perhaps one of those would pair with him just as well for Montressor’s meal as you imagine the Amontillado would.”

“You don’t need to patronize me,” Maya says, sounding less irritable than Phoenix expects. “But, oh, Nick, other question! Why would the narrator, obviously possessing greater strength and no morals, not simply eat the old man so as to get rid of his creepy staring eye and better muffle the treacherous tattletale heart?”

“Telltale,” Iris says. Maya groans at the correction.

“Bitch-ass snitch,” Phoenix says.

“No,” Iris says. “Definitely not. Now, to return to the heart of your question, Mystic—”

Maya and Phoenix both snicker. What follows is not a long silence, but it is a loaded one, and then Iris resumes speaking, her clipped tone betraying her annoyance with the inadvertent pun. “The heartbeat was not a real sound,” she explains, “but rather the psychological manifestation of his guilt at committing the murder.”

“Oh,” Maya says. “So it’s like when you want to get coffee you have to have a barista make it and hand you the cup because if you tried to serve yourself from a machine it always explodes back in your face. It’s not the machine that hates you, it’s you who hates you, and the machine is the expression of it!”

“That is…” Iris trails off, clicking her tongue in thought. “Actually, yes, similar, though no one but the narrator could hear the sound of the heart.”

“So he wasn’t fae either,” Maya says. “Otherwise the whole house would’ve been, ba-dum! That they all felt it! And then probably it would explode.”

“Y’know, if he had eaten the old man,” Phoenix says, because sometimes it is fun, a flex of creative muscles he doesn’t usually get to stretch, to play along with Maya when she has her inane musings, “he still would’ve heard the heart beating, right, because it was just in his head. But instead of yelling at the cops that it was under the floorboards—”

Maya knows where he’s going with it immediately; either he knows the way she thinks too well, or she knows him. “—dude woulda been yelling about hearing it in his own stomach. Man, can you imagine? You’re just some beat cop coming in to investigate and then the guy starts shrieking about killing a dude but instead of starting to tear up the floorboards to show you the body he starts trying to claw open his own stomach?”

Phoenix considers that. He decides that yeah, it would be pretty far over on the scale of fucked-up things he’s seen as a lawyer. Sort of like Matt Engarde tearing up his own face in despair and fury, but also way worse because it would involve definite cannibalism and possible disembowelment, depending on how far the narrator got in his attempts. “Yep,” he says. “That’d be fucked up.”

“You could write it,” Iris says. “Poe is public domain, is he not, and you an adult man who could get away with it under the name of ‘literary reimagining’ rather than it being called ‘fanfiction’.”

“No thanks,” Phoenix says. “I’m not gonna be the man who messes with the classics.” He’d pitch the idea to Larry if Larry made his name on literally anything other than wholesome life-affirming picture books. Actually, he still wouldn’t, because Larry is an artist as well as a writer and there’d be a chance that he’d turn it into painting rather than prose and that is a level of horror Phoenix doesn’t want to go to. Better just to stay on the level of Maya reading cannibalism into every horror story that crosses her path. 

(Would Athena call that projection? He is not going to think about that any longer.)

“Glad anyway you could help with our dispute,” Maya says. “Cuz” - she’s never settled on one nickname for Iris, but cousin or a derivation usually means she’s not angry with her - “was getting wistful when Pearly went off to talk shop with all your daughters, so she wanted to get in the holiday spirit and it spiraled. I made it spiral.”

As tends to happen around there. As Maya is wont to do. Phoenix isn’t surprised. He also decides to ignore the “daughters” remark. It’s not worth arguing that Trucy is his only daughter, and okay maybe Vera half counts, but on the other end of the spectrum, he’s known Juniper for not even a week. 

So instead he voices the matter that is bothering him. He’s afraid to speak it into the world lest she hadn’t thought about it, but he also needs to be prepared. “So, Maya,” he begins warily, “you planning on venturing out for Halloween?” 

He’s dreaded this holiday ever since that first year, when she figured out what trick-or-treat meant and decided that this was the most fae of holidays, what with one being allowed to threaten and extort strangers for goodies. It’s more blatant than the fae usually are, even. That first year, he had to keep her entertained and distracted all night, with candy and other sugary sweets and campy movies, so she couldn’t go and fulfill her suggestion of egging Edgeworth’s car as revenge for him being “a huge douchebag to us in court”. She had gotten the eggs ahead of time and stashed them in his fridge so at eleven they made a run to the corner store for other ingredients to teach her how to make omelets. 

“Nah, don’t worry, I’m staying right here. Pearly can have her fun. But you and I are totally on for our post-Halloween bargain bin on-sale candy shopping spree. You’re buying! It’s tradition.”

“Huh?” It happening three years in a row, and then not for the next seven years, does not a tradition make. “Objection!”

“Nope!” She sounds positively gleeful; he can picture exactly what her smile looks like, how wide and toothy. “Ignored! What’s it that judges say again - overruled! You are overruled! And your penalty is reading Poe for a refresher so we can talk about it more! We need to talk about the one with the cat because I can’t decide if the cat is fae! Or even if it’s one cat! I want everyone’s input!”

His phone display shows a pixel jack-o-lantern with a grin in a probable approximation of Maya’s. He drops his head back onto his pillow. “Goodbye, Maya.” 

The second Halloween, they carved pumpkins in the office; Pearl demanded they not have scary faces, Maya ate half of the seeds even before they roasted them, and Phoenix tried not to think about how last year at that time Edgeworth was around that they could consider the prospect of egging his car. When they dropped pumpkin guts on the floor, Mia flung it right back at them to get it stuck in their hair. The third year, they brought Pearl along for candy shopping, too, and she sat in the cart atop a throne of bagged sweets and pointed out clearance decorations she wanted for next year. They’re boxed up somewhere. He should find them for her and the other girls. For next year, or seven years later, it’s not that much of a difference, is it?

“And,” he adds, “I’ll see you in November.” Start anew. “Tradition, right?”

#fae au extras #roddy fanfics #fae au tag #fic: the witches of los angeles #Wolf would you believe i had this concept BEFORE talk started of the poe musical in chat