#bst ayu

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | First Meal

i kNOW IT’S MIDNIGHT AND IT’S VERY LATE BUT I SAID I’D POST IT ‘TOMORROW’ AND RIGHT NOW ITS TONIGHT I’M GETTING THIS–

that being said, remember that this is a first draft with only minor edits, but regardless enjoy! comments and reception is always appreciated. 

-

A gathering placed itself in the living room on a midwinter’s day. Cups stacked up around each other at the table whilst the group of three conversed together. 

“Now then,” Ayu sat beside Oliver, a cup of apple juice in his hand after becoming a fanatic over it. They both eyed Vittorino in their seats for the new conversation topic. “What are people in your society like,” Ayu asked. 

Oliver never bothered with the question, considering already meeting two of the second eras and never wanting to meet another again. “I think you should know what they’re like, Ayu.” 

“I still wanna know,” Ayu retorted. 

The question still had Oliver rolling his eyes. But he allowed Vittorino to speak for once. 

The teen rolled back on his chair, facing upwards and reaching for what to say. “That isn’t that great of a question,” he said, “they all kinda suck.” 

“Of course, they would,” Oliver commented. 

Ayu sipped on his cup, but continued asking questions. “But, weren’t you basically raised with them?”

He shrugged in his seat. “Sure, yeah. We talk like a normal family almost, but I think we can all agree that we’re all dysfunctional for one another.” 

The interest finally peaked for Oliver, his ears raising, and he asked another question. “How come?”

“It’s just how we were raised,” he answered. “We didn’t have to like people and get along with our situation. Mei-ling never bothered with us; Adeen’s a baby; Orelia’s too mental to deal with; and Hans and Margaret, well, they’re nice to each other, but they’ll nitpick and gossip every little thing about you.”

“… And that isn’t even half of it?”

“No,” he sighed. “There were too many kids that were ditched in forests or being ignored by parents or something back then. There’s still some getting picked up today, but most refuse getting contracts for murder nowadays so that’s good. No more that I have to deal with.” 

Ayu tilted his head, changing to an expression of confusion, but reverted back to drinking. 

“And how do people complain about you?” 

“Easy, I’m apparently a personality-switching kinda guy, and rude both ways. So, people get irritable around me most of the time.” 

Ayu then told him, “You aren’t that annoying.” 

“I wouldn’t deny what they say,” he said, “I’m supposed to be the voices in people’s heads. I’m sure that’d make me a bit of a pest when they want to die.”

“… You know, you’re all mental,” Oliver said. 

And Vittorino only replied, “It’s our specialty.” Then after another one of Ayu’s sips, he reminded him, “It’s about time we get to Alice, Oliver.” 

“Oh right.” He sat up, brushing off whatever imaginary guts he left on his cardigan. Ayu in particular checked for any earlier, but precaution always arrived first for everything. “Guess I’ve been procrastinating for once.” 

“My, what a feat,” Vittorino sarcastically claimed. He jumped up himself from a seat to summon a door. 

Though, before the rush to attend training, Oliver noted to ask Ayu, “Do you need anything for when I get back?”

He set down the cup and answered, “I think I’m fine. I’ll try and make food myself before you get back.”

“That’s good to hear,” he opened the door, “’means you’re listening to my lessons?” 

“Obviously. I don’t want you to cook for me all the time.”

Oliver joked, “What? Makes you feel like a baby?”

His shoulders drooped while he eyed away in a reply, “No… well, maybe– but I just feel bad about you having to be responsible for me.”

A smile crept while Oliver sided his own eyes. “You’re definitely more selfless than most kids our age.”

“I wouldn’t say that…”

“I would.” Oliver let Vittorino pass before he closed the door himself. “See ya later, Ayu.”

The transition from a homey living room to the vast, dead-inside forests of Fowls never flinched Oliver anymore. He stepped out of the entrance, following the routine of his early stretches and a heavy breather for what he could only dream as fresh air. 

Vittorino already wandered off as per usual, and Oliver left himself to his own devices of finding the nearest human in a nature walk. 

The barks on the trees had begun to peek interest to him after the many times of walking past them. Questions spurred his curiosity in tendrils around the wood as he eyed them in a pace for someone else. For, what would those trees be made out of, that had no substance of plastic yet no life of true bark. The feeling of reality, melded with the missing authenticity, brought Oliver to a puzzle and kept his mind off of his lonesome. 

“Oliver!” Alice appeared from behind a tree to even Oliver’s surprised.

He swore, and stumbled back from the flinch of his senses. Retaining his balance once again, Oliver asked with a confusing exhale, “Why meet here of all places?”

She answered, “I knew you’d be here. Vittorino left you to yourself in this forest, hasn’t he?”

The question forced him to nod. 

“Can’t leave you alone like that, now can we?” 

The comment wavered in Oliver’s ears as Alice began walking onwards. He followed, but begged to ask, “Did he tell you?”

“Of what?” 

“Of–” Oliver stopped. The admittance of past desperation from months ago fluttered out of the system, had it not? “Never mind, it was a while ago, I guess.” 

A judging glare from Alice turned to a worriless smile in an instant. “I suppose I should be of concern for it, but it’s likely I already have my sources for it.” 

“And… what’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Oh, simply my usual way of learning.”

The grass crinkled whilst Oliver theorized the many ways the statement alluded itself to. “… Alright.” 

“How has your latest batch been doing for you,” she asked. 

The question Oliver expected still led him rummaging his hands behind him. His gluttony managed to indulge itself in eating the entire bag of meat in one day. However, the heart of a liar never quit. “It’s a pretty good one this week,” he smiled, “Margaret’s got nice catches this week.” And oh, did he hate those words from his mouth. 

While the fib seemed average on his account, Alice still leered at him with her own grin and continued on. “I see… why, I still have a surprise for you after today’s training.”

“A surprise?”

Nodding her head, her hands guided to the exit and entrance to the field. “I hope you’ll like it, but you have to finish your work first, remember.”

A groan almost hefted from Oliver’s voice. “What are we even doing today?”

She pointed towards a stool in the distance with giddy reach and answered, “This.” 

The stool barred a cup, from what Oliver’s perspective held, an average metallic cup without even a shine. Bemused, he asked, “What am I doing with it?” 

“It’s a small subject, but you’ll be making the item invisible today.” 

“Oh,” the difficulty of the subject before irked him at the new idea, “doesn’t seem that hard, but how do I do it?”

They surrounded the stool together as Alice answered, “In all honesty, this is the subject I know least about. Christopher never used it all that much, but it might be of convenience to you some day. All you need to do, from what I can assume, is practice what you have done, just on another object that isn’t yourself.”

Oliver glared at the cup. “It took me three months to figure out invisibility and now I’m off to calculus.” 

“Excuse me?”

“It’s fine. You don’t know useless classes,” he threw off. 

God-fucking-damn it. Oliver groaned at his grass-bed seat. The cup tucked itself within the grasps of his hands; however, his hands were the ones to disappear instead of the cup. Alice already went off to whatever affairs he imagined, perhaps a killing or who knows, abandoning another child into their own devices. How tiring. 

Another tiring factor appeared the more his magic efforts put into his energy, as it all dwindled in his noticeable and reminding stomach. 

The cup still mocked him, rustic and dull in its place, much to Oliver’s annoyance. “Why couldn’t we have done this on Tuesday?” An hour or so had already passed, he assumed. His patience in being left isolated had improved and the forest brought him more comfort in space, but that never fixed anything.  “Can you just work with me here?” 

He glared at the cup, hoping its disappearance would be apparent this time, unlike the multiple other times he used to same strategy. But to no avail, he fell over to the ground. 

The sky irritated him that day, as he stared at it in his frustrations. No beauty was present just like his skills. Though, eventually he sighed, “Hey Vittorino, I think I’m bored this time.”

The sound of a door opening appeared in front of him, only to answer, “Not right now, Alice told me to talk to Ayu.” 

“Again?”

“Yeah, and Ayu’s being a peeve.”

“Alright then,” he sighed. 

In which Vittorino then asked, “Are you dying right now?” 

“Just a little bit mentally.” 

“Nothing serious?”

“Not really.” 

“’Kay, I’ll check in later.” And the door silently closed. 

Back in silence, Oliver wiggled himself in the grass for some time, bringing himself back to his senses. Although a figure interrupted his personal forest ritual. 

“Tired, are you,” Alice asked. 

In seconds, Oliver brought himself up again. “Yeah.” 

“Figured. You seemed paler today if you didn’t think I’d notice.”

He rolled his eyes, “Course, I didn’t.”

With a giggle, she forwarded herself to the cottage. “Here, follow me.”

Drifting off with her, a familiar friend exited from inside and into the porch. She huffed in her plain dress with her coat hanged by the side, and placed her arms tucked together by the door. “You ask me to help you cook when we haven’t done culinary since the 17th century.”

“Is it a bother?”

“Of course, it is,” Eilwen exclaimed. “You’ve seen the amount of times we almost cut a finger.” 

In a retort, Alice continued talking. “Well, we aren’t ones to use blades normally, but is it ready?”

With a nod, Eilwen gestured towards a plate on the outdoor table. 

Alice brought Oliver to said plate and telling the other, “Thank you, it looks lovely.”

Oliver begged the question, with the attractive scent of the dish in front of him. “Uh, Alice? What is this?” 

The small meal contained a slab of meat, with black speckles of char and a shine on the opposite end, and alongside it contained a collage of vegetables and rice. 

They both sat down while Alice explained. “Well, I’ve heard from Margaret that human meat has a similar taste to pork or veal. So, I imagined it would be nice if you were to have a home-cooked meal of deviled pork, with the flesh as a substitute.”

The words brought oddity within Oliver. “Huh…,” he breathed. Poking the food with a fork beside him, he stared at the strange thought of a filling, cooked meal. 

“Don’t forget to eat your vegetables,” Alice added. 

Oh yes, the vegetables. “Alice, that’ll just pass through my system.”

She shrugged, a spoon by her hand and balancing on the table. “Just eat it, it’s average motherly words to tell their child, is it not?” 

Eilwen handed off a bowl to her: a trifle stacked with custard and sweet fruits. She cheered a little at the sight, and made dove into it as it hit the table. 

Oliver lifted his brow at her sugary meal. “Shouldn’t you be a good example by eating some veggies too?”

“I’m an adult, you have no say on this matter,” she retorted while chewing. “My! Eilwen, thank you so much for the help today!”

The woman tossed her apron into the other chair as she gathered her own hair back in place. “Never mind it, this break leads to nothing for ourselves, doesn’t it?”

Alice scoffed. “You’re always such a pessimist, nowadays. You should lighten up again like how we met.”

Oliver caught Eilwen rolling her eyes back at her as she stepped out of the cottage porch. “I’m off now. I hope you two have a fine day,” she sighed.

“You, as well!” A dismissing wave appeared from Alice who continued eating her trifle. Once Eilwen disappeared, Alice turned back to the child. “Now then, go on and eat! You haven’t bitten a thing yet!”

“On it, I’m on it,” Oliver repeated to her. The cut of the meat left it harder for Oliver to cut in its density. Although, after some time of gathering every bite of the meal together with a fork, he bit into it. With a chew, there laid a burnt char on his tongue; with another chew, an array of flavor from the juices melted into his mouth. But the taste brought him not of a crazed or desperate ecstasy and greed, but instead the serene texture of real food. The strange reality of the sense left Oliver blank into space, but he ate quickly out of habit. 

“So,” Alice asked, “How was it?”

In a blink, Oliver glanced back down at his empty plate, with leftover browns and goldens. To imagine that Alice was the one to make the meal for him after all the times she had not, in which it never passed through his mind of depravity. He answered to it all with what he always told: “It was pretty good.”

“Oh, thank goodness!” She laughed. “I was hoping you didn’t hear Eilwen talk more but we had no clue what to do with the meat!”

“Well, uh,” Oliver awkwardly laughed. “It’s always good I guess.”

“I’m only glad you liked it. Now I can say I can still feed other people,” she giggled back with him. 

“Wait, what do you mean from that last part–”

“Here, do you want to try my trifle?” She offered the spoon to him. In which, Oliver obliged. 

And soon enough, he entered a coughing fit of spiting it out. “Holy shit that was sweet enough that I thought it was too much.”

Alice laughed at him, all while taking another bite. “Just remember, Margaret’s sweets and tea has even more than mine!”

***

“Thanks, Vittorino for just the door.” Oliver slammed the exit from Fowls in his living room. And in the slam, Vittorino jumped up from his seat and straightened his coat. 

He excused himself. “Come on, I was finishing up my conversation. I’m about to head out anyways.” The door opened again by him and he jumped through. “See you later.”

“Yeah, bye,” Oliver nodded as he stole the new free seat. The entrance disappeared once Oliver tossed his new bag of food aside on the counter. 

Turning the other direction from the food, and slouching into the couch, he found Ayu staring at him keenly with his journal. 

His legs curled up into his seat with joggers that covered up his healing bone of legs. And his eyes peered with the bright mixture of blue and grey. His hair still flew around as the mess it was, albeit floated like a dark cloud in its disaster. Oliver smiled at him, but Ayu only said, “You can’t surprise me by turning invisible again.” 

“Oh really?” An acceptance to the challenge was immediate by just the flick of his magic. Turning invisible eased in mere seconds despite previous difficulties, though the motivations made the magic strong enough.

Ayu soon blinked around and realized. “Goddamn it,” as he sighed up into the air and sketchbook falling out of the symmetry of his legs. 

In his unseen state, Oliver pranced down to behind Ayu, slowly gaining to behind his shoulder. He allowed himself to be known after saying, “You know it isn’t that hard–”

And that was the moment Ayu literally jumped in his seat, jabbing Oliver chin from the shoulder in the process. 

Oliver stumbled and fell back, the same Ayu-pains stinging in his jaw. 

“Oh fuck.” Ayu crawled and fell out of his chair onto the ground with Oliver. “I’m so sorry again.” 

“No, no, it’s fine,” he hissed. “That was a dumbass move from me; I know you’re jumpy sometimes… Plus, it isn’t that bad.” In hesitance, Oliver let go of the pain. “See? No bleeding, and I’ll ice it right now if it bruises.”

“Are you sure,” he stuttered.

“Definitely not your worst accidental hits.” Oliver whisked himself back up, gesturing to his stomach in reference. “I wonder how you would do with a punching bag, to be honest.”

“Really?”

“I’m mainly joking,” Oliver affirmed whilst opening the freezer. “Actually, there was this one time…” 

And yet again, did Oliver tell of another lovely, mundane story of his younger ages. In which Faustus made a fuss with a six-year-old for both not knowing what to do in a sports store. All of it spoken by Oliver in the most vivid details despite the sameness and the bag of frozen veggies on his chin. 

Ayu seemed to have listened, to Oliver’s pleasure. Faustus’ character still laid as an oddity to them both after two months of Oliver telling his stories. However, it was time for Ayu’s sharing. 

“I don’t think I have much about… punching bags?” Oliver nodded to him. “Yeah, I think the closest thing was this kid breaking a chain of one of em in one of my foster homes.” 

Oliver’s eyes widened. “They what?”

“Yeah it was weird. I think we were trying to see who could punch it the furthest and none of us were winning, but some of us thought we were.” 

“Reasonable.”

“And there was this one kid which others were saying didn’t do anything to it, and we left it for the day. And overnight the kid apparently got one of the kitchen knives, climbed up to the top of the stand-thingy, with only a single small cut and no falling, and chainsaw-ed the heck out of it.”

“How old were they?” Oliver asked flabbergasted. 

“I dunno, maybe six? I was five. But they cut up the chain to where it could snap in a single move, and they did just that the next morning to prove himself.”

Oliver laughed. “And how did the forest-parent react?” 

“Oh, she got mad. Like, made a gate to keep us away from the kitchen mad. And eventually give up foster-parenting.” 

“Holy shit,” Oliver gasped in delight. “How come all of your foster-homes were so chaotic?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I bring chaos with me.” 

Oliver giggled at the comment. But then the chin and stomach began to sting the slightest. The distraction caused sighing. “My god, even after Alice gave me food I’m still hungry… I think the chin is making me more drained.”

“Sorry–”

“Holy shit, that’s a lot!” Oliver grabbed the food-bag, opening it to reveal a plethora of more than the regular. He beamed at the amount and the scent and turned to Ayu, then died down at the realization. He was unreadable, to Oliver’s discomfort. He forced a laugh, and got up, telling Ayu, “I’ll just go to my room and eat some–”

“No,” Ayu stopped him. “No, uh… You can eat here.”

Oliver raised a brow.

“It’s fine.”

“… I think you’ll think I’m weird if you see.”

With a smile back, and attempted rolled eyes, Ayu said, “You attacked me as a werewolf and I already know you’re a cannibal from multiple other stuff. What else could be weirder?”

In a moment of thinking, Oliver sighed. “Ayu, I don’t eat it cooked. I eat it raw.”

And with the statement, Ayu’s eyes widened, and blinked multiple times nonstop. “Oh.” He flustered his words for the next few seconds. “Why raw?”

He shrugged. “Well, for me it never mattered whether it was cooked or not. I wouldn’t need to prep anything either since when it’s raw, it kinda tastes juicier.”

Ayu gulped, staring into the abyss, then shook his head. “Yeah, that’s beyond the point. Just eat. I’ll be… not directly watching.”

Oliver continuously stared back to back from his bag to Ayu. “… I still need a plate.”

Ayu rushed his words. “Yeah, go get that.”

And after the awkward venture, they sat together in silence, bag and plate in Oliver’s hands, and Ayu squirming left and right to Oliver’s own notice. He gulped at the event, “You know, I can really just go to my room if you’re uncomfortable–”

“No,” Ayu said. “I think I have to get used to it by now… we’re practically living together and you have to be by yourself when you eat.” With hesitance, he patted Oliver’s hand holding the plate. 

The slightest tint of red floated on his cheek from the touch, no matter how many times they had clasped in the night. “It’s embarrassing.” 

“It both shouldn’t and should be, so there’s not much to get away from it,” Ayu affirmed. 

“That’s just everything in my life.” Oliver grinned at the comment. Yet, the topic still stood up top of him. Glancing back down to the bag, opening it once again for the stronger aroma. Grabbing the first section, he placed it down onto the plate, with some leftover blood dripping by the side and his wanting to lick it all down. He turned his head back to Ayu, who drew his own eyes away, then returned to the meal. His hands already drenched themselves, and he continued the routine. Out of the plate, Oliver picked up the meat, facing it directly in front of him, the taste already itching in the back of his throat, and he made his first bite against his sore jaw. 

The texture and taste melded into his mouth in the usual satisfaction, nothing much else to say. But, he continued taking bites, staring at the blank television screen in front of him, avoiding Ayu’s eyes at all cost. 

“… Are you feeling better?”

“Relatively,” Oliver chewed. 

The next reply sat there delayed. “That’s good at least.”

Another minute passed by while Oliver ate, with him seemingly forgetting of the one next to him or the anxieties with the subject. 

“So… Oliver.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I’ve been knowing you enough to tell you something… Something I’ve been hiding, really.”

He continued chewing. “Like what?” 

“How the entire black sun thing happened, and how I got here… and the monsters.”

“Oh.” Finally, the questions he had wondered of ages ago. It seemed to have past his mind for the last few months. “Figured you knew something.” 

“Yeah. I did,” he agreed. “I don’t really know where to start but uhm… so, you know how the entire society thing is led by Akeldama, right?”

“You were tricked by him, weren’t you?”

After a few blinks, Ayu whined, “Is it really that easy to figure out?”

“You’re easy to read,” Oliver explained, “That and that’s what happened to the rest of the society, but what exactly happened between you two?”

He sighed. “Okay… Basically, when I was eight, he gave me three wishes, with the deal that I couldn’t wish to undo wishes, wish for more wishes, or bring back the dead.”

In comprehension and analysis mode, Oliver nodded. “Sounds fair.”

Ayu looked down at his seat. “I already made two wishes. I made the first one when I met him: where I wouldn’t die by natural stuff and have powers to fight monsters instead.” He looked at Oliver. “It ended up with the monsters coming to me since I asked for a fight. And even then, my powers are too shitty to fight them back.”

The outcome seemed rough, Oliver could tell. The chewing stopped as he searched for a reasoning. “Well, at least you were just eight…?” An eight-year-old wouldn’t think about mass-murder unless it was me so. 

“Yeah, but I was still being dumb.” The legs curled up again. “I made the second wish a year after… I got lonely pretty quick while being in the alleyway. So, once I was sick of it, I just wished there were people like me so I wouldn’t be alone anymore.”

An instinct kicked in. Despite his bloody hands, Oliver placed his hand onto Ayu’s in return from earlier. 

“Annette came into my life, on June 6th as a birthday present I guess, and an anniversary for when I met Akeldama, but I didn’t really care. I was happy, really happy. I explained everything to her immediately, and I was excited to fight with her when the monsters finally came.” 

He replied to the hand, squeezing it back and staining his own. “They came a while after, and one of her dads was the first to go…” A head tilt down and he told, “It’s my fault she’s in this mess. And it still might just be my fault that you’re a part of this too.”

For a time, Oliver waited for any tears to be shed; however, he was silent, only shaking and squeezing harder the more time went on. A sigh escaped from the last comment. “Ayu, you know that I’m still impossible to exist because of you. Alice was just an idiot and I’m guessing she committed voodoo or some shit.”

He chuckled. 

“And it wasn’t your fault–”

“That’s what everyone says.”

“Because it’s true.” Oliver finally set his food aside, and clasped both of his hands to Ayu. “You were a kid who was just a naïve little mess. We all were. Look at me, I was done with this bullshit since I was nine.” Perhaps that was a lie, who knows. 

“But that’s the problem. –”

“No, it isn’t. We’re all dumbasses that fuck up. Everything in our lives have been through mistakes.”

Ayu gazed at him, lids lowered and position unmoving. He only replied with a silent, “I guess,” and nothing else. 

Ayu remained silent, to Oliver’s dismay. But in dedication of patience, Oliver let it go, returning to his snack. 

“… What was it like to talk to a dictator like that?”

Ayu shuffled his position into laying down on the couch, letting his cold and bloody hand out of Oliver’s. “Weird. He annoys me sometimes in my head and messes with stuff. But who could tell he’d be an asshat when he looks like an albino angel?”

“Albino?”

“Yeah, he has like, really pale skin and white hair.”

“Uh,” Oliver’s own breath heightened in confusion. “Can you describe him a little more?” 

Ayu shuffled. “Sure? He looks around our age all the time. The hair’s messy but neater than mines, and he has a crown thing that has a piece of coal on it for some reason.” 

“Oh god,” he stated. 

“What?”

“… Remember Faustus…?”

“Yeah?”

“Well,” he ticked, “guess who matches the same albino description, and constantly appears and disappears just to mess with people?”

It took a matter of time for Ayu to stare into the abyss and process. “… You’re trying to say that your ghost friend from when you were six turns out to be the bitch that fucked up the entire city?”

“Indeed,” Oliver nodded. 

“What the fuck?” A jump forced the couch to jumble all over, as Oliver shook his plate from the momentum. “Faustus is actually Akeldama?”

“Yeah, I feel dumb that I didn’t connect the dots…” Oliver sat dumbfounded with his recovering food that had almost fallen. “But yeah no, what the fuck.”

“You have been talking to an actually demon-child since you were six!”

“I know!” 

The hysteria dragged the plate to the counter. They both got up and jumped in the couch. “Akeldama’s a faucet!”

“I know!” 

Their peak discovery led them hopping around and yelling at each other. 

“Why would he do that,” Ayu begged to question.

“The hell if I know about that!” He gasped for air. “Wait! I think he talked to me while he was in the dungeon but… fuck, I forgot what he said!”

“That’s not helping!” 

“That’s obvious! But weirdly enough Faustus was actually nice when he wasn’t annoying?”

“Impossible,” Ayu huffed, “Akeldama is never nice.” 

“Well we have proof of a counter-claim!”

“Then what the fuck does Akeldama want if he isn’t just an ass?”

“Do you think any of us would have a clue?”

“NO!” 

They screamed together, and fell over at the revelation, both thumping on different side of the couch. A moment of silence let the hype die down. Only for them to realize the amount of screaming that had occurred in a minute. 

They laughed at it. 

“Goddamn, we’re a mess,” Oliver said. 

“I think that’s all what we’re supposed to be.” 

Ollie sat up. “See? That’s what I’m saying, we’re all fuck ups!” He laughed again. But after the entire fit, Oliver picked himself back up again, and picked up the food and bag by the counter with a relieved sigh. “I really shouldn’t eat the rest of this.”

“Then don’t.”

“That’s the plan,” he said, “I’m just gonna take one last bit and we’re good for–”

“Oh, the door’s unlocked cool.” And then entered a young voice. In the fastest second, Oliver whipped his head to the door in front of him, facing Annette straight to the eye with guts and blood all over his hand. 

They both stared, eyes widened at each other, but it was Oliver to say, “… fuck.”

***

“I knew you had some kind of problem but holy cow.”

After the obligated explanation, Oliver finally packed up his meals, to Annette’s staring.

Ayu told her, with pinching eyes, “To really be honest, I forgot you were coming after I punched Ollie–”

“You punched him?” Annette forwarded her seat. 

“It was an accident!” 

“And it was me scaring him and him jumping up at me,” Oliver corrected. Off in his room, he placed the bag down and brought of notice his stains across his hands and on his face from the mirror ahead of him. His face strewed in the situation. He asked, “Annette, you want me to wash up, don’t you?” 

The frantic nod and smile seemed as something Oliver could visualize. “I’d appreciate it, and Ayu too.” 

The question held in Oliver but not for longer after remembering the handheld support. “Shit,” he muttered. 

They both washed off the blood to Annette’s comfort, clowning and bumping each other in the meanwhile for the humor of it all. And while they entered back, Oliver found a distinct melody to Annette’s patient humming. 

“The Emerald Maiden,” he questioned the song. 

She peered back at them, scanning yet hiding it with a kind gesture. “Yeah, my parents were big 80s junkies.”

Ayu and Oliver sat down together, Ayu’s composition growing drowsy to the other’s notice. “They seem to have interesting taste,” Oliver added. “Birke was kinda surreal back then.”

She smiled in argument, “I think that was the point of the trend.” 

“Well, it wasn’t that good of a trend in the first place.”

“Oh, so you’re declaring war today, I see.” A sleeve was pulled from her dress with a fake fist. Her laugh forced its way while she joked. 

But Oliver shrugged. “Not much of an argument, just a sad counter.”

“What are you guys even talking about,” Ayu asked. 

He answered, “Just some obnoxious music.”

“Excuse me!” Annette objected, “They had some good slappers.”

“Yes, slaps to the ears,” Oliver muttered, to Annette’s dismay. 

“… You know what? I’m not gonna be a part of this.” Ayu rolled out of the couch, crawling back up and into Oliver’s room. “I’m gonna sleep.” 

Again? Oliver asked. “Alright, we’ll try and be quiet.”

“You don’t have to, Ollie,” he yawned. “It’ll just be a quick nap.” And with the comment, the door closed gently from the distance. 

The two, one discovering that their friend is a cannibal and the other being that friend, were then stuck together in the forgotten topic of prior. Oliver quaked at the situation, however Annette created the simplest icebreaker. 

“… He calls you Ollie?”

He shifted, “Yeah, but I think he just does it when he’s lazy.” 

“Do you think I can call you that?” As weird as it sounded, she questioned. 

“Uh… no, I don’t think that would sound right,” he answered, “coming from you.” 

She nipped, “That’s a shame. I thought I would get ‘I just found out you’re a murderer’ rights.”

“… No. No, you don’t.” He set aside the already annoying topic, and moved on. “Anyways, how’s high school for you? You seem pretty busy.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” A groan fell out of her mouth. “Imagine you being an all-A student in middle school and say, ‘Hey, I’ll be fine doing all advanced classes. I always do that!’ And then proceeding to have a nine-paragraph essay due in two days and three other different projects and reports that take up four hours of your time each and you thought you’d be smart about it but you end up–”

“Hold on, aren’t you a freshman?” 

Her head tilted back at him, a mad expression peering from her face. “Yes. A freshman who has made mistakes,” she said. “Don’t make my mistakes,” she said. 

“… Duly noted.” Curiosity poked itself at him, despite his own wondering of his future in school considering new lifestyles. “Is middle school easy then?”

She ticked at the question. “You don’t even have to turn in half the work and you hit a decent B if anything.” But then her body slouched into the coach. “Honestly now with both church and school hitting me under the bus, I don’t have time for anything. It blows.”

“Seems like it,” he imagined. 

A little sigh wavered the room in Annette’s rare leisure. Soon, she added in her time, “But, aside from that, you and Ayu seem to be getting along well, so I don’t think I have to worry about him as much anymore.”

“As much?”

“Well yeah.” Oliver noted her fidgets all over the place with her words. “Before you, he was a kid without any kind of home or anyone to talk to except me… and a few others that just hurt him.” 

The last comment churned Oliver’s guts somehow with only a little clue as to who she referred. 

“I couldn’t manage to take care of him well enough since I had to help my baba after Dad died. Not to mention myself for a bit,” she huffed a laugh. 

The conversation handed little leeway for Oliver in the conversation. “I guess that makes sense… My mom had to counsel a patient’s parents after the kid died from an attack, and she was stressed too since the girl was getting better.”

Pulling back her hair, she nodded. “Guess you didn’t have to deal with losing someone.” And a blink later, he met her with skeptical eyes on the topic. “Right… That wasn’t what I meant to say. It’s just– Ayu just seems better overall now.”

“… You knew about Akeldama, right?”

“I did,” she answered. 

“He talked about it with you a lot, didn’t he?”

Another nod. “It’s rare but he gets more into it the more you hang out with him. It’s weird with how much he insists on how Akeldama is the worst, but he’s one to put himself at fault. If you know what I mean.”

A previous conversation floated in his mind. “Yeah, I think I do.”

An arm rested by the chair as she said, “He’s a good kid. Screwed up along the way but he didn’t mean for everything to turn out this way.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying, though. It’s obvious.”

“Not to him,” she replies. “It’s definitely some kind of… emotional trauma.” Without much else to add, she shifted. “I remember when I met him, he was jumping around like a five-year-old kid. I thought it was creepy at first but it was easy to tell what the issue was… I stuck with him because I knew he needed somebody, and once he told me about the wishes, I knew I was right.”

Oliver listened to her monologue keenly. 

“I used my birthday money for his birthdays, and almost everything else for him. It doesn’t seem like much from how you met him but I tried to help him however I could think of.”

“So, what you’re saying is you were a good person to Ayu,” he summarized. 

“I guess you can say that, but I feel like I babied him too much.”

Oliver tilted his head. “And what do you mean by that?”

Her eyes glanced down. “I tried to act like nothing was really wrong for him. Like, everything was perfect the way it was for the most part.” Smiles peered through her face no matter the tone she made. “I was acting like some manic pixie girl, I guess. But, I think it ended up with Ayu thinking I didn’t care…”

No continuation began, nor did Oliver allow himself to reply. He let the words contemplate in Annette’s mind while the time passed. 

“… Well, I didn’t really get the job done, but you came at a good time.” 

Unsure of the compliment, he replied, “Thanks?”

A soft punch met Oliver’s shoulders to his surprise. Its gentleness seeming foreign. Annette giggled at his face, “Yeah, you’ve probably done a lot better than me.” A whistle blew up quickly, off pitch of whatever went on, but all right he supposed. “How’re his comics doing, actually? I haven’t listened to those in a while.”

“Oh,” he completely forgot about them. “Well, he’s still drawing, but he doesn’t really bring up his stories.”

“Really? He would tell me about it all the time!” 

Ah yes, show off what I forget to ask about. “Actually, I’ve been getting him into writing some more, since he seems to have a knack for it.”

“With his handwriting,” she laughed. 

Oliver shrugged at the question. “He wasn’t that good at drawing either, but his handwriting doesn’t look as bad as some kids in my class to be honest.” 

Her bubbly nature peaked at the seams throughout the new conversation. “It’s a good thing you’re getting him into something new though, he sometimes focused way too much on that comic.”

“Didn’t he not have anything else to do?”

With eyes rolled back, she agreed, “Yeah, you’re right, but that’s why I made game days!”

“Oh, don’t remind me of that Ono game.”

Their conversation continued of that of miscellaneous topics that flowed together with only some effort. However, after some time a mumble caught Oliver’s ears. He turned around to the source and led to his room. 

Standing up, he already figured the occurrence, but Annette, unbeknownst of why, followed. 

Entering into his room, there lied a lump on the bed, a homey one at that. Rummaging around the blanket endlessly and uttering scared words indecipherable to even such sensitive ears, Ayu slept his usual naps, and Oliver went over. 

Oliver whispered to Annette, “Did Ayu talk about this before?”

She nodded, “He mentioned them a couple of times, it’s where he gets half of his story ideas, aside from Lillie dreams–. You know about her, right?”

Shaking his head, he answered, “He’s barely mentioned it; I’ve been curious for a while. He says her name sometimes when he sleeps, and when he thinks he’s alone… I wanted to ask but I could tell he didn’t want to talk about it.”

She sighed, “You’ll have to wait for him, then. It’s not my place to tell.” 

After a moment, Oliver went ahead and poked around at Ayu carefully. “Ayu, wake up…”

The pattern continued with some shivering from the sleeper. Though, once he woke, he jolted with his arm into Oliver’s. 

He winced at the immediate pain, followed by Annette saying, “Yeah this is why you prepare yourself.” 

Ayu blinked at the both of them, and told Oliver, “Sorry.” 

“It’s okay, it wasn’t the bad arm.” 

He still shrank down, to Oliver’s own worries. But instead of anything else, Oliver followed with a smile to him as they were together. 

“Hey Ayu,” he said. “How’re you doing?”

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Crimson Capture | November 1st | A Mother | A Demon | A Child | The Wolf | Bloody Fingers | A Monochrome World | The Pocketwatch | I’ll Have My Day | Two Weeks | Monsters | Sleepover | Next>>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 17 #murder mention #abuse mention #suicide mention #cannibalism warning #bruise warning? #gore warning #death mentions #bst oliver #bst ayu #bst vittorino #bst alice #bst eilwen #bst faustus mention #bst akeldama mention #bst annette

[inisurabaya]

Warga di Kampung Krembangan Selatan, Kecamatan Krembangan, mengeluhkan kondisi lingkungan mereka yang tidak sehat. Sampah kampung banyak menumpuk karena tidak ada bak sampah besar dalam satu kampung. Bak sampah kecil di setiap rumah memang tersedia mandiri. Tapi mereka kesulitan menampung dan membuangnya. Kadang sampai tiga hari menumpuk. "Warga merindukan bak besar dan gerobak sampah. Bisa mengangkut sampah di satiap rumah. Kebutuhan ini mendesak karena menyangkut kesehatan warga," kata Pertiwi Ayu Khrisna usai Reses, Rabu (5/5/2021). Begitu tiba di Kampung Krembangan Selatan dalam rangka reses, Ayu sudah langsung dicurhati problema kampung. Mulai bantuan sosial tunai (BST) yang tak tepat sasaran, juga soal sertifikasi tanah yang lamban. Namun, persoalan kesehatan lingkungan menjadi problem serius. Ayu menuturkan bahwa predikat membanggakan Kota Surabaya harus juga dirasakan di kampung. Keindahan tengah kota didorong hingga kampung. "Warga mandiri menyediakan bak sampah rumah. Namun warga perlu bak sampah besar. Minimal per RT harus ada. Ada sekitar 400 RT. Pemkot mampu mengadakan bak sampah ini," kata Ayu yang juga Ketua Komisi A DPRD Surabaya. Politisi perempuan Golkar ini mengapresiasi warga kampung yang mendiri bahu membahu menyediakan bak sampah. Begitu juga petugas dorong sampah. Seharusnya ini tugas Dinas Kebersihan dan Ruang Terbuka Hijau (DKRTH). Anggota Fraksi Golkar ini meminta DKRTH tak membedakan warganya dari latar belakang apa pun. "Saya berharap tak ada kepentingan dalam pelayanan dasar kebersihan di kampung ini," tandas Ayu.  . . . ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ SUMBER 📷 : SURYA.CO.ID ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■. . #surabaya #ini_surabaya #inisurabaya #aslisuroboyo #lovesuroboyo #banggasurabaya #galerysurabaya #seputarsurabaya #sparklingsurabaya  #surabayapunyacerita  #exploresurabaya #suroboyo  #panoramasurabaya  #exploreindonesia #banggaindonesia #jawatimur #indonesia #travel #viral  #Persebaya #greenforce #Bonek #indonesiajuara #BikinBanggaIndonesia #SURABAYAMENDUNIA #SUROBOYOWANI (di Surabaya, Indonesia) https://www.instagram.com/p/COfnLTdrPD5/?igshid=mlbmfhglgpgo

#surabaya #ini_surabaya #inisurabaya #aslisuroboyo #lovesuroboyo #banggasurabaya #galerysurabaya #seputarsurabaya #sparklingsurabaya #surabayapunyacerita #exploresurabaya #suroboyo #panoramasurabaya #exploreindonesia #banggaindonesia #jawatimur #indonesia #travel #viral #persebaya #greenforce #bonek #indonesiajuara #bikinbanggaindonesia #surabayamendunia #suroboyowani

[sucimuqo]

Banyak yg bilang Jogja itu istimewa. Menurutku, Jogja itu banyak cerita. Mungkin ini yg membuat Jogja disebut istimewa. Selalu ada cerita disetiap waktunya, pun sudut kotanya.

Hari ini, aku dan 3 temanku melancong ke Jogja, tepatnya ke Gembira Loka Zoo (GL zoo). Tentu ini bukan pertama kalinya aku naik kereta, beda dg Alinda.

Kami tiba distasiun sekitar jam 7 pagi. Antrian lengang. Dalam hati bersorak, “alhamdulillah ga antri”, yg ternyata tiket jam 7.23 sudah habis terjual. Ternyata walaupun ini bukan hari Minggu libur semester, tiket kereta terjual habis sebelum waktunya sehingga kami harus membeli tiket jadwal selanjutnya (9.30).

Bisa duduk di kereta prameks itu suatu kebahagiaan tersendiri. Karena di tiket seharga 8.000 ini mmg tertuliskan “tanpa tempat duduk”. Beruntunglah kami bisa duduk di kursi, ga lesehan.

Kereta Prameks berhenti dibeberapa stasiun. Stasiun Klaten, Maguwo, Lempuyangan, Tugu, bahkan Kutoarjo. Tujuan awal kami adalah berhenti di stasiun Tugu (karena berdasarkan pengalaman teman, GL Zoo bisa ditempuh dg Trans Jogja yg dalam pikiranku hanya bisa didapatkan di Malioboro). Ternyata aku salah.

Ada seorang Pasutri dengan 1 orang anak yg menghampiri Ayu ketika kereta tiba di stasiun Maguwo. Si Ibu bertanya tentang arah menuju GL zoo jika menggunakan trans Jogja. Aku menjawab : bisa Bu, naik trans Jogja lewat Malioboro. Kami juga mau kesana. Si Ibu : ga lewat Maguwo sini aja kah mba ? Nanti langsung naik kereta 2A ? Aku berpikir sejenak dan menyadari, kalau ternyata di Maguwo juga ada halte trans Jogja, lalu kenapa harus jauh2 ke Malioboro ? Jadilah kami ikut turun bersama dengan pasutri ini di stasiun Maguwo.

Tarif TranJogja hanya Rp 3.500 (lebih murah dibanding Solo) dan banyak jurusannya. Untuk ke GL Zoo dari stasiun Tugu naik yg nomer 2A. Selain harganya yg relatif lebih murah, sistem pembayarannya pun berbeda sekali dengan BST.

Sebelum naik trans jogja (tepat dipintu masuk halte) ada petugas yg menunggu. Disini tempatnya bayar. Kayak mau masuk ke taman atau tempat wisata gitu. Uang yg kita bayar akan ditukar dengan kartu masuk, lalu kartu itu dimasukkan ke dalam lubang kartu (kayak main time zone masukin koin gitu) dan barulah penumpang bisa melewati "pintu"nya. Kalau takut salah naik trans, tanya aja ke petugas, tujuan kita harus naik nomer berapa. Petugasnya ramah.

Aku jadi merasakan Jogja istimewa karena adanya trans ini. Bagi kami para pelancong yg gapunya kendaraan pribadi tetap bisa ngetrip pakai trans. Jurusannya banyak pula.

Trans berhenti di jalan masuk menuju GL Zoo. Kami hanya butuh berjalan ga sampai 100m (kayaknya) untuk sampai di pintu masuk GL pun loketnya. Tarif masuk GL Zoo Rp. 30.000/org (per Februari 2017).

Kebun binatang ini luasss dan ini kali kedua aku kesini. Bosen ? Enggak :). Aku suka. Apalagi Bird Park yg dipenuhi kicau burung. Aaaa love it.

Kami tiba di GL sekitar jam 11, dan baru keluar jam setengah 3an sore. Capek ? Yaa pasti. Tapi masih kuat untuk lanjut ke Malioboro.

Kami ke Malioboro tetap naik trans. Dari halte GL Zoo, kami naik trans nomer 2A lalu transit di RS Bethesda dan kembali naik trans nomer 1A untuk sampai di Malioboro ataupun Stasiun Tugu. Transit gaperlu bayar lagi. Cukup sekali.

Awalnya, kami berencana turun di halte Malioboro. Tapi karena aku pikir halte Stasiun itu dekat dengan stasiun, maka aku mengiyakan rencana teman2 untuk turun di stasiun. Dan ternyata Halte itu jaraknya 100m dari stasiun itupun stasiun depan, dan kami harus berjalan kaki ke stasiun belakang yg jaraknya 2xlipat lebih. Tauu gitu turun di Malioboro.

Sesampainya kami di stasiun, tiket jam 18 habis, sehingga kami harus antree 2 jam lebih untuk bisa membeli tiket jadwal selanjutnya (jadwal terakhir jam 8.15malam). Antrian tiketnya, gilak panjang. Banyak orang. Stasiun rasa pasar diskonan. Hati2 kalau ke Jogja saat weekend. Tiket kereta cepet sold out.

Setelah 2 jam mengantri, kami dapat 7 tiket. 4 untuk kami, 2 untuk pasutri yg kami barengi dari Maguwo, dan 1 nya lagi untuk si mba2 yg "nyelip" antrian dan nitip minta beliin tiket ke kita. Gabagus ini model gini. Kasian yg udah capek2 antri dibelakang.

Setelah kami dapat tiketnya, kami pergi dari stasiun, makan bakso dekat hotel Neo, lalu cuss ke Malioboro (jalan kaki lagi). Koleksi foto.

Tak terhitung berapa kilo kami tempuh dengan kedua kaki ini. Sampai rasanya spasm dimana2. Tapi kami masih kuat. Kalau aku sih biasa. Itung2 latihan tinggal di luar negeri yg banyak pejalan kakinya. Dan olahraga. Wkwk

Acara melancong ini kami akhiri dengan perpisahan di stasiun purwosari. Aku dibonceng Nurul sampai ke kos, sedangkan Alinda dan Ayu menggunakan jasa "MenJek UMS".

Oya, di Jogja kami juga betemu beberapa teman UMS.

Ah, terimakasih. Senang banyak ketemu orang, dan bahagia atas melancong hari ini. :)

Trip to GL Zoo, 19 Februari 2017

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | Monsters

now, here’s the aftermath of the mess that unfolded last week. then next week will be the end of part ii! i hope that these last two chapters are worthwhile for the poor hearts that i probably harmed earlier on. 

remember that this is a first draft with only minor edits, but enjoy! comments and reception are heavily appreciated. 

-

The sight stroke him as relatively familiar: one of Oliver in his view, cardigan blanketed around him along with bloody stains upon his mouth and hands. A bag hid behind his coat, however the smallest of a trail of blood from behind could never help. His shoulders trickled downwards and eyes drooped without any of his light shining. The expression and stance were never new, all of his experiences with Oliver culminated at that one moment, and that was the problem. 

With his small request, Ayu shut his mouth for his words as he slugged his way over to sit next to him. He sat crisscrossed, and cupped his entire face in his hands.  

Out of context, the situation left Ayu baffled in his seat as he shuffled. But the concern overwhelmed him to a necessity. 

“Oliver, what ha-”

“Tell me how was your day,” he whimpered and stopped him. 

Ayu tensed himself at the cracking voice. “But-”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he breathed. His hands brushed away from his face which then revealed cold sweats and whimpering brows. 

He was able to read the face, and avoided them in attempted respect. Dawdling in his blanket, he whispered, “It’s important, isn’t it?”

“… No.” 

Creeping away from the covers, a hand of his swept onto the roof of Oliver’s. The blood had dried, yet suspicions still arose. He then lifted up the sleeve, despite it not being the left. No attention was paid to Oliver’s reaction, yet he continued, only to find the healing bruises and scratches left behind. “Is it really not important?”

Oliver swatted himself away. “Don’t remind me.” 

Ayu flinched at his own actions, creeping his own hand back to the blanket. “Sorry…” 

Whipping his head back, Oliver softened. “Don’t say sorry, just-” He paused. “Tell me about whatever you wrote… or who you talked to, what you dreamed about…”

In hesitance, he hopped with his cover, directing himself at the boy. He leaned over to him without any movement of the hands “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can do that.” Making sure to dart back into his eyes, Ayu asked, “Please say something that happened.”

Oliver’s stern face grew. “I might throw up from it.”

“That bad then, huh?” He sighed, brows still tight between each other. “I want to hear something… but I can wait.” He back down from him.

“And I wanna hear something from you, and I can’t.”

“Yeah.” Itching the back of his head, comforted in the mild weather, he stumbled to where he should have left off. “… Annette came over today.”

“…”

“Oliver?”

“I’m listening.”

“Okay,” Ayu muttered. “I… think she felt bad about being busy, so she gave me a music player.” He lifted the MP3 to attention.

Oliver chuckled after a pause for no real reason. “Continue.”

Nodding, “She said she got a new one and wanted to give me her old one. But she told me to pick a type of music I like so she can get more of that for me.”

“… You mean… genre, right?” Oliver squinted at the word.

“Right.” 

“And… what genre are you liking right now?”

The vocabulary raced to the front of his mind but failed to reach in time. Ayu shrugged at the failure. “Fancy old music?”

“Classical?”

He nodded. 

“You don’t seem like the type to like classical.” Oliver’s words flowed softly, the power and attitude drained from prior. 

“What did you think?”

“… Punk? I don’t know, something you’d think is ‘cool’.”

“True, but it’s relaxing.” Ayu twirled an earbud. “Feels like it might help me sleep.”

“… God, I miss that.” Oliver snatched up the device and instantly opened it. “What songs do you have? – You have Mondlicht?”

“The pretty one?”

“The one I need to listen to right now.” He connected himself to the music with one ear and unfurled his shoulders. However, it merely managed to shake him up. 

“What’s wrong?” He crawled over.

He hiccupped, “I feel like I forgot what it sounds like that isn’t stupid humming.”

“The piano?”

“… Music.” 

Ayu’s heart dropped with a rhythm or rhyme. The possibility of him forgetting a sound, even the thought of his masterful sound, deemed itself as unheard of in his head. Yet he shut his mouth, zipping and locking in commitment as a friend. 

Oliver peeped out of the sound. “The music is helping, Ayu. Thanks.” 

“You grabbed it yourself,” he said. 

“Then thanks for not stopping me.”

Ayu silenced his words.

Oliver plugged in the other earbud. “You wanna ask again, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do.”

After some time, Oliver let out a breath to himself. He scooted up closer to Ayu all of a sudden. Sights glued onto the screen yet eyes lowered, Oliver muttered, “Let me listen a bit more. And don’t leave…” He looked up to Ayu. “Is that fine?”

“Yeah, why would I leave?”

“I dunno. A lot of people did.” 

In an attempt, Ayu laughed off the pressing conversation. “Half the things you say always make me worried.” 

He said nothing. 

Ayu adjusted his blanket, embarking the silence now met with someone else. He kept his composure as the idea of watching eyes daunted him every second. Ignoring the blood, his journal captured his attention and ached to be back in his hand. However, the goal was not to leave, he reminded himself. Leaving Oliver from attention likely stayed a key factor in the message. 

Best not to run away from the problem this time. 

An idea of what happened never conjured up in Ayu’s mind considering his simple heart. If anything, a hard beating– what if it was him? He never recalled any terrible moments lately but bruises made it plausible. Besides a simple wish messes everything over, so it would be an additional fee, would it not? –

Plop. 

His eyes widened ever so slightly at the new pressure on his shoulder. It shuffled at every other beat of life while Ayu found it to be Oliver laying against his blanket. Sleeping quickly along with the growing night sky, Ayu coincided by freezing instead. 

He studied him. The earphones still tugged snugly in his ears, though barely with any noise of a gentle guitar. His composure lost itself completely yet no snores rocked from him, albeit in a short time. But then, there were the eye bags underneath the covering lashes, and the memory of the now soulless color of an iris. 

Ayu relaxed his tense bones, hopefully to Oliver’s comfort. He probably needs it. Chucking in his mind, he drifted a hand to cover up the sleeper’s bloody ones. Staring without any other goal in mind, Ayu smiled at the restful face. “You’re probably cold,” he whispered. And in the quietest of moments, he wrapped his blanketed arm around Oliver’s shoulder in the fall evening. 

Together, they enjoyed their first quiet moment. 

***

Burning lids drifted awake as a soft melody hummed against close earphones. Ayu lifted his head up from a nap it seemed, a nice one at that. Only engines and smoke purred, nothing alerting him. He itched up, rubbing his eye away from his cover. Then he realized his other arms was unable to cover his stretching yawn.

It was only then he recalled what had happened before falling asleep. 

He shivered at the reminder that Oliver still slept beside him, however he began flickering up his own composure as well. 

Oliver stirred on the bony shoulder and arm, fluttering awake without much peace in the eyes for long. His focus wandered until meeting Ayu’s, and immediately jumping out of the blanket. 

A blush was unknown, with the blood hiding whatever could be found on his cheeks. 

Ayu blinked, but smiled all the same at a lively reaction. “Are you feeling better?”

He tilted his head. “What?... Oh fuck.” Swathing his hand over to his face, he hissed out, “I forgot for a second.” 

“Did it get worse again?”

“No,” Oliver stammered. “I think it’s… actually blurring.”

Ayu nipped his cheek, context screaming for a need. “Can you,” he gulped dry air, “explain, now?”

In the corner of Ayu’s sight, Oliver’s hands fumbled to increase the volume of whatever was playing. “I think a little.”

The words rang out with reluctance, though Ayu knew why. Regardless, he scooted his head fully to Oliver’s attention, keen to listen, and keen to help. 

Oliver’s mouth opened ever so slightly yet a word struggled to reach out from the opening. His brows ruffled up and tugged back and forth with all the changing expressions while a sentence had not even started. Until, “I was stuck in a dark room by myself for a while. To starve and learn how to eat.”

His heart pulsed. “For how long?”

“… Two weeks, I’m pretty sure. I didn’t have anything to tell except voices.”

As the concept burned in his own stomach, Ayu gripped his fists and abandoned the blanket. “So, you were left to die for that long,” he asked, a cold rasp lying behind. 

“Yeah…”

His heart pounded with an unknown sense of feeling. The underlying idea that this was always his fault tugged him in the chains of his mind. Though, instead of growing fists or the slightest of a scream. He snatched up his pencil and jabbed it towards the wall, puncturing it deeply. 

He huffed from the aggression, with only another idea following. “Who was it?”

“Ayu–”

“Was it Alice?”

Oliver lowered his head. “Well, yeah kinda– but no, it was someone else.” 

“Then who?” His eyes burned furiously as his rasp grew more intense. 

It took some time. After some shuffling and breathing, Oliver said softly, “Her name was Margaret.”

“And why did Margaret think this was a good idea?”

“She didn’t find anything wrong with it, as stupid as that is.” 

The pulse of the moment slowed in Ayu. He sighed, “Okay… when is the next time I can see her?”

Oliver perked his expression. Concerning, he asked, “Ayu, why do you want that?”

He twitched a little. “She trapped you in there. And probably killed people without feeling bad or anything… She’s a monster, right? She’s like the rest of them…” A drive overrode his reason.

Oliver shook his head. “Ayu, don’t tell me you’re–.” He paused, unable to finish.

“She- she should be treated like the rest of the monsters.”

In a rush, Oliver grabbed his shoulder. “Ayu, don’t kill her. It’s not gonna do anything–”

The drive spoke for him. “It isn’t like I’ll live trying.” 

Oliver himself froze up, his mouth growing agape as he quietly muttered, “Ayu…” His expression collapsed. “Stop.” 

With his cry, Ayu softened from adrenaline. Though he still pursued. “It’ll make everything better,” he said. “She’ll be gone and I probably will too, and that’ll fix up a lot.”

“No, Ayu. That’s a terrible idea.” He let go of him. “You shouldn’t leave… If anything, I should.”

And with that, the drive disappeared immediately. “Wait no–”

“It’d be easier to kill me first off. Besides, they can all change somehow, right? I can’t…”

“No, Oliver…”

“I go and kill without literally any thought. And I like it.”

Ayu shook his head. “What? No, you don’t.”

“Don’t deny it,” he spat. “I drink my own blood because it tastes good. I lick off the blood on my fingers whenever I eat because it’s delicious. And I fucking ate a piece of flesh without a second thought, and it was the best thing I’ve ever had… I’m just like them.”

His lips pulled its hardest to a smile but failed. “No- no you aren’t, Oliver.”

“Ayu,” he said. “I’m a fucking monster. You know this out of anyone.”

Words were not processed for a reply on that, most definitely. 

Oliver sighed. “I still wanna eat,” he stated. He gestured his head towards the item he carried before. “It’s right there in the bag and I can still smell it.”

The blood appeared more poignant than prior at that moment. 

“It was too good…”

Ayu gulped, pushing down from gagging. However, he fought against it nonetheless. “Oliver,” he spoke again, “you’re just–”

“Exactly.”

“No!” He let out. “You’re just you and– sure, some things can suck but it isn’t your choice.”

“… You don’t know that.”

“But I do.” He proclaimed, “I know you don’t want to hurt people. You’d never try on purpose…”

Oliver’s reply remained at nothing. A laughing group of teens passed by before he asked with the tiniest voice, “Are you scared of what I can become…?”

But the truth welled over. “Terrified.”

In a second, Oliver smiled at the confession. “Well then, I’m sorry if I ever go too far.”

“I’m sure you won’t.”

… The street’s music welled up over them. Cradling their conversation that had seemed to stop, they listened to it all in its natural glory. The engines’ hum and tiny families’ giggles rung in their background. A blur of conversations overlapped between one another to a messy song. 

Oliver’s smile stayed a while. To the point that he kindly told Ayu, “Thank you.”

“For what?” I screwed up at almost all of this today. 

He answered, “For… everything pretty much.”

Ayu raised a brow. “Why everything?” 

“I like having you around,” Oliver admitted. “I can’t kill you and you’re… nice.” 

“I’m pretty dumb, though.” 

“That’s what makes you fun,” he laughed. “Besides, I’m smart, so I can help you with that, can’t I?”

Ayu pouted, “But I don’t like learning.” 

“That’s why you can’t read.” 

“Shut up!” 

Oliver began laughing more at him at the expense of Ayu’s embarrassment. His crossed his arms, tossing back over his blanket in the process. 

“One day I’ll make you read a textbook, then. Is that a good plan?”

“Of course, not.” 

As they bantered together, the street lights began to flicker to Oliver’s notice. He checked the iPod and gasped, “Holy shit, it’s eight.” He stumbled up. “I need to get back home and–” He stared down at his hands and grimaced. 

“Clean up?”

“Yeah…”

Ayu asked, “Where are you gonna put the bag?”

“I’ll hide it somewhere.” He joked, “If I can hide an entire switchblade, I can hide a bag.”

Ayu stammered, “You have a switchblade?”

Oliver blinked. “Oh yeah. I do. But we don’t have time for that now.” He dashed up to the front with the bloody bag in his hand. 

Without a second thought, Ayu yelled out, “We’re gonna have to at some point,” as Oliver ran off. A goodbye was heard in the distance, but Ayu was not pleased. 

He muttered a goodbye back, but only with a grumble. And he was met yet again with the cold for the night. 

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Crimson Capture | November 1st | A Mother | A Demon | A Child | The Wolf | Bloody Fingers | A Monochrome World | The Pocketwatch | I’ll Have My Day | Two Weeks | Next >>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #bst #black sun tale #chapter 15 #blood warning #scar warning #suicidal thoughts #swearing warning #oliver had to ruin it for me this chapter could've been cLEAN- #death threat...? #uh pencil abuse #bst ayu #bst oliver #i got distracted by a video and forgot to upload until now godd-

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | A Child

we’re back baby !! and better than ever since boy does part two have a l o t. i was able to finish majority of the section during my hiatus and i hope you all love/feel so much pain in these events as much as i do!

remember this is only a first draft with only minor edits, but with that, enjoy! comments and reception are heavily appreciated

- 

This isn’t gonna end well. The thought repeated itself over and over as Oliver scraped a pencil against his paper. 

Birds chirped against the window. Their singing reached directly to his ears, and the office desk he worked on laid besides the porch’s side window. The sole reason being that his mother could gaze at the outside view to distract herself from paperwork, on purpose that is. 

The boy’s focus on his words didn’t bother to fix up the curtains, afternoon sun shining against his pale eyes. His sight burned though stomach pains numbed his entire body to even notice. 

A broken pocket-watch ticked at the side, breaking silence along with the birds. The out of time tune still held no bother to him.

The essay he wrote was… choppy, to say the least. Though, considering the class and grade he held, a childish essay would be an A in the gradebook. 

He swapped through previous drafts and desktop computer facing him. The paper was almost done in his eyes. 

He mumbled as he typed, “That’s why the cotton chine was just as important as anything else during the old ages… print.”

The events of the week prior lingered in his mind. In his head, Ayu’s decision must’ve already been a rejection. No doubt entered his mind on the option. 

His mind etched on returning to the boy’s home, even after failing to realize said boy’s problems and risking his life in the process. 

Then again, Ayu also didn’t kill him on the spot. And the more he thought, the image of Ayu’s concerned face, his eyes drooping and mouth bitten down as he gave a hand to him, it stuck to Oliver with the sole words, 

“I’m not gonna leave you alone like this.”

… Paying back wouldn’t be so bad.

The printer beeped as a message rang in his phone buzzed for a message. He flinched at both sounds going off, growling as he picked up the phone first. 

The messaged revealed to be from his mother, 

I’m going to be back from work later than usual, sorry about that 

But I prepped some food for you to have for dinner luckily! Hope you have a good day (11:54pm)

Oliver stared at the words. The brightness of the small text glimmered in his eyes.

He sighed, chucking the phone at cushioned chair in the corner. The traffic outside died down at the moment, leaving only the birds and clock to sing. 

He shook off the day-old struggle and grabbed his paper from the printer. 

***

“Oliver.”

“Hm?”

“How do you think of life right now?”

A small boy laid on his bed, barely reaching four feet. He played along with a new gift from his mother. His miniscule hands sored from the nylon after playing for long. 

He lifted his head towards the boy across him, viewing his stature with his bowl-cut bangs and big green eyes.

The boy stood there, arms crossed. His skin was pale as a sheet. He covered up his left eye with his snow-white hair, while the other eye studied him with an ocean blue. 

The streets outside bustled with noise from an ongoing festival. Though, the boy sat back, secluded in his own home to listen through a dense window. 

“… What do you mean by that?”

He gestured at the window. “Your life… Do you like it?”

The boy tilted his head. “Of course, I do.”

“What do you even like about it?” He eyed him.

“Well,” the boy set down his instrument, setting his fingers to count. The left hand carried multiple papercuts from reading over and over. “I like my friends. I like my mom. School’s fun since people say I’m smart… I like T.V. and things I get and-”

The white-headed interrupted him with a short chuckle. “You like things, just like every kid I suppose.” He turned, pacing around the room. 

The boy only sneered, “Wouldn’t you get that though?”

“… I assume so, yes. But it’s interesting to see kids grow to be so… people-caring. A shame for you and others.”

“What’s there to shame?” 

“I-” the white-headed stammered. “It’s not so much to worry about.”

He avoided the boy’s eyes.

“Just… be careful when I’m not here.”

***

Another day on the streets, Oliver walked his way to a certain alley, ukulele in hand yet again. 

The weather blew against his cardigan that day. Fall leaves flew left and right in fury, breezing past his hair and shoes in seconds. 

Cold sweats dripped down his head. He paced and fidgeted during crosswalks. 

He’s going to hate me. I’m gonna be a monster to him. 

Thoughts kept spurring in his head. He itched towards his ukulele strap. His stomach cried all the same. 

“Shut up,” he muttered, drifting off in the streets. That is, until he stepped towards the crosswalk of Pierdeli Avenue. 

There stood a stubby woman. Her blue gown shined in beauty against the others standing, while her blonde hair laid kempt against her peachy shoulders. She stared at the cars with avid eyes, ignoring all those around her as they ignored her back. 

However, Oliver stopped his steps as he approached her. He recognized her even from a blurry memory. “Alice… Are you here to talk with me some more?”

She blinked and shook her head. “Oliver! Forgive me for not noticing you pass by. The auto-mobiles are just fascinating to observe even after so long.” She gawked at the speeding car getting chased by the police. She ignored the police and went on. “And yes. I wished for more time with you and was just granted with all the free time in the world.”

A tacked-on smile was plastered to her face. “Right…” I get the cars, at least. 

“Are you in a rush?” She faced him. 

Oliver stuttered at the attention. “No, no. Not really.” He dug his hands to his pockets. “But you can still walk with me.”

“Ah, I see,” She nodded. Her excitement over the cars dying down by the second. “Pardon my intrusion then.” 

The crosswalk light turned green as those surrounding them passed through. Oliver and Alice followed thus. 

Her gaze continued looking over toward the streets as they walked in silence. Oliver’s words almost quivered out of his lips, though he hesitated for what to start with. 

“Alice?”

“Yes,” she piped up.

“What exactly is going on with me?”

She stifled. “That’s…” sighing, “that’s what I expected you to ask, truly.” 

“It was obvious, wasn’t it?” Oliver scoffed at her words. His eyes dabbled to the building walls, avoiding her expression over the answer. 

“I can somewhat explain the factors; however, I’m still restricted on telling every detail…”

The boy pinched up, still ignorant of her face. He ordered, “Just tell me what you can.” 

“Alright.” A hint of an accent could be heard from Alice, Oliver noted. British was all he could guess. Her voice gave a softer yet stern tone than his sweetly outgoing mother. Her voice was a different subject to focus on however, as he immediately snapped back once she began to speak again. “You… must do what you’ve already done for the rest of your life, I’m afraid. You’ll suffer more than just death if not.”

Her words were tense, as if her throat squeezed them out. They didn’t hit Oliver on impact, though his heart froze all the same. “There’s no way of stopping it, is there?” 

She held back with an answer, only for her to breathe out, “No. There’s nothing at all.” 

Alice kneeled down to him, halting Oliver midway in a mild-crossing sidewalk. People passed by the two of them with no batted eyes. She held him by the shoulders and focused on his eyes with her pale blue. 

“Please believe me when I say this: None of this is your fault. You have the full right to blame this on me and my selfish actions or- God, I can’t even say his name.” She looked off with a painful smile. “Just- It was my own hasty actions that led this to happen. I’m deeply regretful and I apologize to the bottom of my heart… Do you understand?” 

“I…” Fifteen seconds for an apology speech wow- “Yes. Yes, I do- Ma’am?”

The woman took her hands off his shoulders to hold his hands. She mumbled while staring down, “I know you must despise yourself; and I’m sorry for that as well.” 

Oliver squirmed at the interaction. He leaned back as she froze to her own space. “Well uh…” his attention wavered, “no shit.”

She chuckled, letting go and standing up again. “Now, even if we’ve just met, you shouldn’t speak fowl words around me. I’m still your mother after all.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” he mumbled, “’Isn’t that surprising that you try and censor me.” 

They both took more steps together. Alice affirmed to him, “I’m only trying my best. After all, I haven’t been able to for the past eleven years…”

“… Why’d you put me in the foster homes?” 

“That was someone else’s idea,” she instantly replied. “But I wanted you to at least have some kind of normality for the first years of life.” 

Oliver’s face dulled. “And I’m guessing you weren’t ‘allowed’ to talk to me then?” 

She nodded with no other explanation to her answer. 

Oliver groaned. He took a breath to ask another question. “So, if you really are my mom, then where’s my dad? Wouldn’t he have something to do with this?”

“He’s…” she looked back, “not here anymore.” 

“Oh, okay.” He replied to her with a calm stance, walking off without much of a reaction. “Kinda like the family I’m in now then.” 

“Pardon?”

“My adoptive mom’s a widow too. My dad’s death was the reason she adopted me in the first place.”

“I see…”

“What happened to my actual dad then? Did he die from old age or something?” After all, Vittorino said you were ancient.

“Oh, no!” Alice exclaimed, “He didn’t pass from that. We were both similar to immortals. He simply passed due to circumstances.”

Circumstances…?

“Still,” she added, baring a faint smile, “your father was a great man. A bit of a dunce so to say, though endearing at best.”

Her smile brought Oliver to a suspicious stare. “… Why can’t I know so much about this?” 

“Why?” She sighed. “Our leader doesn’t want you to discover much so fast. That’s all there is. However, you’ll be able to figure out many things as time goes along.”

Well, that’s helpful.” He chewed on his lip. “You know Vittorino, right?”

“Of course, I do. I’m the reason he watches over you.” 

“What situation are you in that led you guys to know each other?” 

“Oh… you have the first half at least.” She cleared her throat, taking a breath. “We’re both a part of a society that lets you be immortal. Though, in exchange, we have to kill somebody once a month; otherwise, we’ll be executed.”

Oliver froze. “I’m sorry, what-”

“I understand it’s absurd. Our leader himself is absurd, after all,” she jeered. “But at least he gave us a ‘break’, so to say, on that.” 

“You’ve killed people too, then?” 

“Yes.” 

“And is that why my dad died?”

Her lips pinched together. “… yes.”

An awkward silence held them apart. The large crowds chattering away covered up their distance. 

 “There are two groups in our society.” Alice continued what she started. “There aren’t many First Eras left… We hated what we were doing, enough to kill ourselves. I’m one of the last ones, and the leader’s aide all the same.” 

“How many of you are there left?”

“Five, including myself.” Her voice held no emotion with the statement. Oliver gulped at the amount. 

“Then,” he shrugged off the concept, “what about the group?” 

“Second Eras? They’re stranger to say the least. Our leader took most of them in when they were mere children, so they were raised to believe murder was moral enough.” She added, “They’re all disturbed. And Vittorino was the first of that era.” 

Oliver raised a brow at her. “If you say he’s disturbed, then why do you leave one of ‘em to check up on me?” 

Alice answered without a thought. “He was older than most when being taken, so he has a bit more sense to him than the others. Besides, he was the only one willing to out of boredom and favors. I would’ve gotten someone I trust more if she wasn’t an arse about it.”

“So Vittorino was a prick but was more willing than the other prick?”

“Practically.”

Oliver chuckled at her last comment. Though, it crossed his mind that a certain street faced him. 

“Um, Alice?”

“I’m about to get to the place I’m going.” He pointed at Ayu’s street. “So, can you go…?”

She opened up with an, “Oh!” adjusting her hair. “Of course, I can.” She began to walk away from him. 

“Goodbye then,” she waved, “I hope to see you soon.”

“Yeah,” he hesitantly waved back.  “Thanks for the info.”

She disappeared with the crowds; Oliver stared in the distance. The answer he’d gotten in the walk boggled his thoughts. His mother was at least readable, yet restricted all the same. 

The puzzle of his origins still floated in the air, close enough to reach, it was just a ‘leader’ that blocked out the useful pieces. 

“Who the hell is the guy anyways,” Oliver muttered.  Well, a dick out of anything. 

He shrugged it off, along with the prior conversation as Ayu’s alleyway stood right in front of him. 

In a turn, Oliver peeked through the opening with browned moss. Inside the small home, a lump sat in the middle of the ground. 

Oliver tilted his head at the figure, bewildered. “Guess they’re not here…” He entered without another thought, pondering over the little lump. 

It bared small little cloth fuzz that moved off from the gentle winds. Oliver leaned over for a closer look; its appearance began to manifest. From ahead, the lump formed to shape. And at the end of the wrapped-up figure was a big tuff of black hair brushing against Ayu’s dry skin.

Oliver backed up from his observations after realizing the lump was just Ayu. The boy fidgeted from his blanket as he slept. Murmurs filled Oliver’s ears. He didn’t bother trying to translate the sloppy whispers, instead sitting down by the sleeping boy. 

Settling his bag, he grabbed his ukulele and began tuning. It didn’t take long for him to start strumming. The notes took him off-course from his mental state. It only took the matter of a few chords to bring some satisfaction. 

He glanced around at his surroundings while playing. Ayu’s blanket seemed too thin and worn to get any good sleep; his calendar flew left and right that it was only a matter of time until it fell out its tape; and a small journal laid next to Ayu’s sleeping body, right there in the open. 

Oliver put his playing at a halt. He placed his instrument down with careful sound, replacing it with the journal. He glanced down at Ayu with weary eyes. Though, after no signs of waking up, Oliver sneered at himself. He turned, hiding the journal from Ayu’s sight, opening it up to read through anything humorous. 

First pages: Hilarious. Each held lackluster art. Long torsos, disturbing eyes, no feet, and anything else that could make a drawing off. The scribbles on the side left the artist looking illiterate. Oliver skimmed through it all with puffs of laughing breaths. 

However, as the pages went on, the boy encountered pages full of sloppy writing. He squinted his eyes to get at least the beginning of some, though ultimately had to skip to recent pages for better handwriting. 

The dates counted for every day. Each day held for every time he did nothing, when he made something new, when he failed, anything. And with almost all entries, there would be a continuous statement: “No Akeldama.”

… Who’s Akeldama?

I havent seen Lillie in a whyle.

Who’s Lillie?

Annette told me that theres bin area deths in the forest for a whyle now 

… shit-

The journal was taken from his grasp. He flinched in shock and above him stood Ayu with the item. “What are you doing?”

“I uh-” Oliver’s eyes shifted to the abandoned blanket. “When did you even wake up?” I didn’t even notice him walking. 

“A minute ago. But what are you doing with this?” His raspy voice set a colder tone than usual. His red glare shook Oliver up. 

“I was just waiting for you to wake up and got curious. Your drawings look cool!” 

Ayu frowned with skeptic eyes. He rolled his eyes, yawning, and sat by Oliver. “Fine then.”

“I wanted you to sleep. You don’t seem to get much of it anyways with the traffic.” 

“It’s alright, Oliver, really.” 

… 

“I wanted to talk to you,” Oliver started, “about what happened last week. A bit more straightforwardly at least.” 

“I’d figure.” He huffed an awkward chuckle. 

“But- uh…” Oliver avoided the boy’s eyes, words couldn’t fill the air. In the midst of his pause, a brief sight of Ayu’s legs reminded him. They were still skinny to the bone as always. “My mom left me food to cook… and I know you need it more than I do.”

His eyes held Oliver with confusion: lowered lips and a blank stare. “So, you want to talk at…?” 

“My house. I’ll make the food myself,” God, I hope this is good. “You can shower and wash your clothes first if you want, since I can tell you need some cleaning.”

“I… thanks.” A blush tickled his face. Oliver peered at the dark red against his pale skin. Strange. “I don’t really wanna be an annoyance to you but-”

The boy snapped out of his stare. “It’s okay! It’s okay! You’re struggling like me so it’s the least I can do.”

“Then,” Ayu stood up, padding his dry, open skin, “shouldn’t we get going?”

A blank stare stroke Oliver in a hesitant essence. Nonetheless, he followed. “Um, yeah!” 

***

Smoky air blew against the heat fan. Oliver’s eyes focused solely on the meal cooking on the pan. Ayu sat on the side fresh out of the shower and wash. He curled up in his tall seat as he sipped upon a cup of water. They both avoid each other’s eyes; They both allowed the sounds of oil burning up to play over them.

Oliver hesitated speaking. His past thoughts reoccurred to him. 

Even if I excuse anything, it’s not like he’ll change his mind.  

“What’re you making?” Oliver passed the question off until realizing it was Ayu. He twisted his head back. Ayu still stared at the cup he held. “It smells good.”

“It’s just lemon pork tenderloins. My mom usually gives me pork stuff for me all the time since it used to be my favorite.” He answered with a blank tone, without any joy in his eyes as he cooked. 

“Isn’t that stuff hard to make?”

“Not really,” Oliver noted, “Cooking’s pretty easy for me; but that’s inconvenient at best.” He tried to make a stuttered laugh, though he missed the idea of food tasting as good as back then. 

They both took another pause. 

“You don’t know how to cook yourself, Ayu, don’t you?”

“No… I was usually just given junk food anyways.” 

“Then,” he lowered the stove heat, “here, I can show you.”

A skeptical tone overtook him. “You want me to cook?” 

“No, I’m going to help you.” Oliver reassured him. So, then you don’t burn the house down. He went off from the stove and set his hands on the table that stood in front of Ayu. “It’ll just be the cooking part of it. That’s easy enough, right?”

“But isn’t that the part where I can burn the house down, like you said?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on it.” He set aside Ayu’s cup from his hands. “This is how I was taught so you’ll be fine.” 

***

“So… you just gotta wait ‘til it’s brown?”

The last tenderloin was tossed in the fryer as Ayu asked for once. 

“Yes,” Oliver answered. He glared at the one’s Ayu cooked on the side, “Not until they’re charred.” 

“I guess that’s easier to follow than cutting it up to see if it’s red inside.” 

Oliver bit his lip. “Yeah, I guess that’s more of a chicken thing than pork… but I just grew the habit of being safe.” 

Ayu shrugged. “If it’s edible, I’ll eat it.” 

“Even a human?” 

Ayu frowned at the joke. “There’s a limit.” Oliver’s chest tightened at the mistake. 

“… We’re still not gonna talk about that now.” 

“Yeah, yeah…” he mumbled, staring at the meat in the pan. 

Ayu’s wet hair had started to dry out. It puffed up to the same shape it was before. The hair kept Oliver distracted for the silent seconds. His hand reached to touch a small tuff, stroking for a short moment. It’s just soft. “Your hair’s weird.” 

His eyes blinked once or twice. “What?”

“Well, it’s long enough to make you look like a girl,” he snorted.

Ayu pulled his hair in front of him. It blocked half of his face. “Shut up. It’s hard to find a way to cut it good by yourself.”

Oliver noted, “That and even when washed, it looks like a puffball.”

“Okay, that’s just how my hair works.” 

Oliver gave a small huff of a chuckle. “I’ll get you gel sometime then. It’s distracting-”

“No, don’t get gel,” Ayu retorted, “Annette tried it on my once and I thought it was gross.” 

“Why gross…?

“My hair felt like greasy stone, that’s why.” 

“… Ayu, that’s the point.”

“Then I don’t like that point.” He grabbed the spatula and plopped the last tenderloin on the serving plate. “I think it’s done.”

Oliver’s eyes widened. “Huh, that one actually looks pretty good.” 

“Just give me more simple directions next time then,” he grumbled.

Oliver sat with his mouth shut. Ayu faced directly next to him. He watched as the boy stuffed himself with everything made. 

Oliver was greeted with nothing in front of him. There laid empty space: no plate, no food, only a fork he toddled with his hands.  

“Damn, this was great…” He mumbled with a full mouth. 

“Like my mom says, even when ruined, it’ll still taste great.”

A whack slammed to Oliver back. His voice squeaked, “Motherfu- that hurt!”

Ayu snorted. “Sorry. Just don’t roast me like that.”

Oliver glared at him. 

“Still, tell your mom that I like the recipe.” He took another bite. 

Oliver dropped his fork against the table after seconds of no conversation. He tensed himself with his words, “About last week, on my birthday…”

Ayu glanced back in confusion, then swallowing and facing down. “Y-yeah…”

No words were said yet again, only an apparent atmosphere of the topic in the air. Oliver prayed to not choke on it. 

No, it doesn’t have to be now.

He stammered, “You know what? Let’s not focus on that right now.”

Ayu blinked. “Wait what?”

“We can just talk about that later; we have all day!” The boy forced a curve on his lips. 

Ayu stuttered, “Uh sure-”

“What shows do you- did you watch before all of that?”

“… Hm,” he scratched on the dry skin on his cheek, “My family didn’t watch that much. Just VHS movies and Crimson stuff on Saturdays, I think. I just played around with someone most of the time…”

“Oh yeah, you mentioned Crimson.” Oliver hopped down from his seat.

He shrugged. “I watched them the most out of anything.” He smiled while staring at the air. “They were just cool and people made ‘em cooler, yanno?”

“Sure,” Oliver replied without a thought. As Ayu talked, he walked to the TV, setting up the DVR. “I was never really into that stuff, but either way, you’re missing out.”

“I’ve been ‘missing out’ for four years actually.”

Oliver chuckled at the joke. “Well, ever heard of The Mr. Rious House?”

“Annette might’ve talked about it a little but no, not really.” He climbed out of his seat with careful steps on the stool.

“Oh, boy you’re in for a ride.” With only a press of a remote control, the television set played the crackles of thunder. Ayu jumped at the sound. 

“God, damn it- wait is that a dead body?”

Oliver sneered, “Yep, and this is a kid show’s first minute of the first episode.” 

“Well this is going to be… a thing.” Ayu sat down on the couch with wobbly knees. 

This’ll be fun.

“It won’t,” he hissed, curling up to his knees with an organ playing.

***

“This house isn’t fun.”

The third episode began to play. Oliver and Ayu had settled themselves on the couch with separate blankets, Ayu’s being thicker and covering his entire being. 

Oliver sat against the middle cushion. He enjoyed himself over the nostalgia of the first few episodes while glancing over at Ayu’s reactions ever so often.

It all consisted of him flinching and muttering words of help. Humorous to say the least.

“Just wait until you see Mr. Rious, Ayu. He’s the best character.”

He glared at the screen. “I don’t wanna see this man.”

“He’s a fun dad for Noll,” Oliver chuckled. “Wait, that’s a spoiler.”

The show continued to play and Oliver watched along the adventure. 

“What do you mean Rious still isn’t here? He hasn’t been in five years! What is this about him being my-”

“Oliver?”

The boy snapped back from his focus. “What is it?”

“You said you were adopted, right?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“How’re your parents then?”

“Oh.” Oliver hummed in consideration. “I just have an adoptive parent really. It’s me and my mom here.”

“Huh… Did you ever have a dad?” Ayu tilted his head down, curious eyes shining at Oliver.

“I apparently did before my mom took me in.” He leaned back. “He died and got my mom her career choice.” 

“Really?” The blanketed boy’s tone didn’t hold as much emotion as prior. “How’d that happen?”

“Simple. He killed himself during college years.” 

Ayu choked. 

“Now that’s the reaction I expected,” Oliver stated dully.

Ayu gawked, “You don’t just say someone killed himself like that, Jesus Christ-. I thought he just got in some accident or monster attack!”

Oliver shrugged. “My mom thought I was mature enough to tell me when I was younger and I think I’ve matured enough over the past years to talk about it… Probably the most fucked up thing I can say about myself without getting arrested.”

Ayu frantically blinked over and over. “Do- do you ever think about him? Or like, miss him or anything?”

Oliver scoffs. “That’s always the dumb question. I never even knew him; how would I miss him?” He ponders for a second. “Thinking is another thing.”

Ayu didn’t give a reply. The show played as they talked.

“Sure, it’s always interesting to hear about him, I guess. But I mostly just think about him in ‘what if’ scenarios.”

Ayu’s face gleamed with worry. “Like…?”

Oliver bit his lip, then took a breath. “Like what if I die like that?”

Ayu’s eyes widened. What did he expect? His mouth fell flat as he muttered. “I…”

“Noll! What are you even doing?”

“Look, I know I screwed up some times, but this’ll help, won’t it?”

“… Don’t?”

“What? Don’t die?” 

“Yeah…”

Oliver smiled. “Well, I’m pretty sure that’s been the plan for a while. ‘Least for my body and sub-conscious to say so-”

“Just don’t die, please.” Ayu tugged on Oliver’s blanket. “It’s a dumb thing to ask, but… it’s not fun.”

Oliver studied his expression hidden through his hair. It was torn with scared eyes staring and glimmering a vermillion again. His reaction begged the question: so, who did he have to deal with? But the boy pushed aside the conversation at the end of it. “Let’s keep watching.”

“I uh, yeah that ending scared me.” 

“Your reactions are some of the best. But did you really not expect Rious to do that?”

“Look I was hoping he’d be a funny, crazy guy,” Ayu retorted.

“You watch Crimson. Don’t they have screwed up villains in that?”

“Yeah but that was different. Crimson made them goofballs in the end!” 

Oliver just eyed him. “Did it really creep you out that much? You’ve definitely seen worse-”

“Yes, it did.” 

He laughed it off and transferred the topic. “I learned one of the themes on my uke. They were fun ones, weren’t they,” he teased.

“Shut up.”

Oliver sat up. “The song’s kinda slow but I did it.” He paced back to his room to grab his ukulele out of the case. In the corner of his eye, he peered his switchblade on the corner chair. A piercing in his bloody lip could suffice for the time being, so he stepped aside. He won’t come into this room anyways. 

He ran back to the living room where Ayu played with his now soft hair and sat back next to him. 

“Surprisingly the full version sounds really nice,” Oliver mumbled as he tuned up his instrument a bit. “Okay…” He took a breath before starting a set of chords. 

Overall, the protagonist’s theme laid great poetic-ness to the story as a well-meaning representation of his backstory and foreshadowing to come, at least in Oliver’s head. The theme was rather soft. The plucking of the strings following and drifting along one by one emerged the room in an echoing tragedy. Notes played to the tune of the mother’s lullaby of tender somber, and eventually, her words began. 

“If you sing me a lullaby,

Then maybe a love song too…

And one day, you’ll sing me a requiem,

And someday, they’ll sing yours too.”

Her song was a simple poem, not much substance in lyrics. The song held meaning in the story at least.

After some repetition, it took a few strums and tabs to finish the piece. 

“And that’s the song.” Oliver set down the ukulele while speaking. “It might be a little boring but who knows, my music tastes may just be boring.”

“You really sing good,” Ayu commented.

“Well, you mean, I sing well.”

“Shut the hell up,” Ayu pushed Oliver, nearly making the boy fall over from the force. “I hated grammar out of anything in school.”

“School’s pretty easy,” Oliver flaunted, striking a pose. “But I’ve also been told that I’m gifted in music.” 

“Oh yeah? Then stop being a show-off,” Ayu snapped back at him. 

“Sorry,” he replied, with no meaning expressed in his words and tone.

Oliver returned back to his ukulele to play with the strings. The tune he formed ended up being major somehow. Things are going well for now at least-

“Oliver, are we gonna talk?”

Great, I jinxed it. “Huh?”

“You said you were going to but… I guess you just wanted to distract yourself.” Ayu crawled closer to Oliver. 

The boy didn’t make any movement; he continued playing with a nod. 

“You… really don’t wanna talk about it.”

Another nod. 

“Look…” Ayu started. “I get this entire thing is fucked up. I still think it’s too fucked up for me to- allow it to get in my head. But I can still listen… I wanna be helpful for somebody for once. ‘Specially with that stuff you were saying earlier…” 

Oliver stayed quiet. 

Ayu sighed. “I’m sorry if I scared you there… Just say what you want.”

Oliver’s melody dwindled down each beat getting slower until a full stop. He breathed in and out before saying few words. “I can’t fix it if you were wondering.” 

“What?”

“I’m supposed to be like this, without a choice.” He took a pause. “I think I was a pretty big accident.”

Ayu’s face scrunched up. “I don’t think jokes are good for right now.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “I can’t change or control it. And I may end up hurting both you and Annette so… I think it’s best that you guys stop hanging out with me. Like most people.”

Ayu curled up more into his blanket with pondering eyes. “… I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean you’re not sure-”

“You’re one of the only people I can actually talk to, Ollie. You look like a good guy too.” His stared up directed into Oliver’s gaze. “I don’t think you should give up on a possible answer just yet.”

“I,” Oliver stumbled on words. “I still wanna keep at least some distance.”

“How come?”

“Well, whenever I make friends, I end up screwing them over the worst way possible by accident so that’s a reason.”

Ayu blinked up again. Then realized. “Oh.” He made a crooked smile, brows faced with slight worry. “I’m pretty sure I’m strong enough, still.” 

Oliver’s face goes sour in doubt. 

“Oh yeah… how come you always wear that jacket?” Ayu tugs at the red cardigan. “Don’t you have more?”

“I do,” Oliver answered. “But I mainly use this one since blood stains are harder to find with this.”

Ayu cringes. “That… sucks.”

“It does.” Oliver tugged his left sleeve farther down. “It really does.”

Oliver looked over at the clock on the stove. He stood up and dragged Ayu to get up too. “You should get going. My mom’s gonna be here in an hour. Do you want me to take you?”

Ayu passed him off. “No, I’m fine. Thanks for bringing me over. I feel fresh, yanno?” He pulled up his newly cleaned jacket up to his nose, eying Oliver as he sniffed it. 

Is he trying to hide that? Oliver chuckled at the thought. “Yeah, I can tell.”

“Uhm, see ya later.” Ayu grinned as he shut the door. 

Oliver only muttered back his words; however, as soon as the door closed, he rushed to his room and jumped onto the bed. “Oh, thank God!”

“Thank Him for what?” Vittorino appeared against the wall like every day. 

“I have a dog’s nose and he doesn’t smell terrible anymore. Plus, he didn’t wanna kill me!”

“Oh, right. It wasn’t that surprising.” He snickered. “It’s been a week again, how’ve you been.”

“Shut your damn mouth; I almost forgot about it.”

“Hungry then,” he proclaimed. “Are you gonna eat soon?”

“Til I’m forced to, I’m not gonna.” The boy slugged himself off the bed to the switchblade on the chair. “Now, if you can please leave? I’m about to have a snack.”

He made his way to the bathroom routine. 

“Sure, fine. Just don’t drink too much. Alice’ll get mad at me again.” He disappeared as soon as he told. 

Oliver’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sure she will.”

-

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

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 8 #swearing warning #suicide mention #death mention #murder mention? #blood mention warning #why are my tags always like this #bst oliver #bst alice #bst ayu #bst vittorino

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | A Monochrome World

sorry for being a few minutes late! i took more time eating dinner than i expected, in all honesty. but this chapter is emotionally wild for me mainly because this chapter and the next chapter took 6 months to write out of the past year and a third i have been writing this. 

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

- 

He carried a bag of bread in his hands; his mouth stuffed up from slabbing some inside. As he strolled along an abandoned streetway, the evening sky darkened early with the Fall. 

A gentle breeze blew against his cold figure. Posters dawned over him without any movement, staring at his lonesome walk. ‘Open’ lights illuminated from store shops but flickered at every step. 

Ayu sighed from the cold silence. His eyes stared blankly at the ground while his feet made a pattern with his steps. 

He bit off of the bread in his mouth, chewing, “November 16th, 201X: It’s a Friday so Annette’s busy with a life. Everyone was at school so nobody really visited again.” 

He glanced back at what he carried, cringing. 

“I was… getting kinda hungry again.”

The only reply was a pigeon’s squawking. 

He was tempted to squawk back at it, but passed it off to not get attacked by one again.  

He changed his subject back. “What would it be like if I was still in school…?”

Maybe I’ll be as busy as Annette, “but wouldn’t that steal time for what I’m supposed to be doing,” he questioned. Might as well have that 1% chance of getting a monster anyways. 

He turned a street by routine. “I can stick to art or something… even if I suck… Same goes for monsters though so fuck.” He groaned, “Shouldn’t have asked in the first place.” 

He delved into another bite. His failures passed through his views. And after glimpsing the mistakes and mishaps, a single truth was formed from his choices. “Nobody notices that I’m gone… or exist so,” he wondered. Shrugging, “If I die or something, it wouldn’t matter.”

But the truth stopped Ayu’s steps while he chewed on his bread. He squinted his eyes against the truth. … Can everything just undo itself?

The boy whined, “Damnit, that’s actually a good thing.” He kicked a can. “But what if it just continues,” he asked a passing bird. 

It ignored him. 

His mouth lowered. He grumbled to the bird, “I’m not doing anything else, I guess. It’d still be my fault but… that’s just running away from the problem.”

He cringed at the thought. Then, he breathed in and out, tapping on an irritated ankle. “You really did start to bruise up, did you?” 

At least the mark on his face disappeared. 

A stifled laugh chimed in Ayu’s ears. “Very interesting. Reckoning about dying, I see?”

The boy’s entire mood transformed to irritation. Bored again, Akeldama?

Red eyes rolled in front of him. “You can say so. It’s just that you caught me by surprise.”

Ayu scoffed, “Of course, you go and read my mind…”

“How are you companions doing?”

“Everyone’s lives still suck.” He grabbed another bread roll from his bag. As he chewed, he questioned, “You’re the one who made Oliver like that, right?”

The answer took longer. “Now then… That’s more complicated, I suppose. But regardless, he was unintentional.” He chuckled, “Misfortune is a given for me after all.”

Ayu glared. “Then did your misfortune caused all of this?”

“No,” Akeldama answered, “that was from your naivety and folly-ness all the way from when you trusted me.”

He took a final turn, gritting his teeth as he growled, “Get out of my head.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” he purred. “Besides, you have a guest.”

Ayu entered the alley, mumbling with his bread, “A what? - Oh…” He gripped on his bread bag with hesitance, pausing on his next bite. 

Oliver sat beside the alley wall, seemingly waiting in patience by twirling his hair. His eyes shifted back to Ayu and blinked back at him. 

Ayu hid his bag despite Oliver’s eyes already on it.  He gnawed on his cheek. 

Oliver’s face flattened. “You know you could’ve just told me you wanted some food.”

Blinking around, Ayu shook his head and placed his half-eaten bread back in the bag. “You haven’t been here since last weekend.”

He sighed, “Fair point.”

“Besides, it’d be annoying to beg for food and water all the time, mainly since I would’ve been asking from a single person for some years.”

“But to the point of stealing?” Oliver gave a smirk. 

“First off,” Ayu retorted, “no offence but you’re the one saying this.”

Oliver scoffed. 

“Second,” Ayu raised a finger without thinking. “Yes, I feel bad for it either way but nobody even notices.” 

The opposed argued, “I try my best not to do what I have to, thank you very much.” He shuffled an item he hid with his coat. “That and you’re lucky now. I can give you food whenever.”

Ayu raised a brow. 

“Including this stuff.” Oliver carefully placed his items in the center between them: a jar of pineapple cubes and a small container of something Ayu couldn’t read. “You had a bruise… so I looked it up what could help.”

Ayu stared at the goods, surprised at the idea. 

“Luckily, I already had the aloe vera,” he swept away from his stare, “but I’m kinda hoping you can borrow it-.”

“Thank you.” Ayu touched back on his previous injury; it had already disappeared from the few days. “Thanks…”

“Oh,” Oliver pinched up. “You heal quick.” He tilted his head down, pulling the bangs of his hair back. 

“No, it’s fine,” Ayu blurted, “it can be good for… my ankles.”

“Your ankles?”

“Yeah, my ankles.” Ayu pointed down at his legs, focusing on his bruise marks. “I kick ‘em sometimes without thinking about it when I’m walking. But I’m just dumb with it.”

“Not so much dumb,” Oliver mumbled. “They don’t look well, now that you pointed it out.” He already began opening up the aloe-vera. 

“Ng- you don’t need to do that right now!” Ayu backed away from Oliver’s hands, glossy from the gel he scooped up in a mere second.  

The redhead leaned into a crawling position. “What do you mean? Your ankles are almost purple now that I can see it!” He grunted his last words as he grabbed a bruised wound with a pounce. He applied it in an instant; making Ayu’s spine run cold. 

Ayu hissed, “Shi- why does that feel so weird?” His ankle froze in place to resist the urge of kicking Oliver back. 

“It’s just cream, Ayu. And it’ll help you not have shitty health.” Oliver grabbed another handful for the other leg. “And don’t try to kick me out or something; I don’t wanna deal with an injury I don’t know how to hide yet.” 

“That sounds like something to worry about inste– seriously, how much do I need of this?”

“Just enough to make a nice solid shield with the aloe,” Oliver chuckled. 

Ayu cringed. “Stop. Please.” 

“Come on, it’s almost done.” Ayu groaned in discomfort; Oliver then let go and closed off the cap. “There, that was quick, wasn’t it?” 

Ayu huffed, “Shut up,” as he tossed his bread to the side and pulled up his hood. 

“This wasn’t even what I was here for,” Oliver stood up and pulled off Ayu’s hood immediately. “I talked with Alice and she said you can come with me this time.”

“You’re telling me this now?”

“Yeah and we’re going now,” the boy dragged off from the alley’s view. “I gave her a specific time and this just made us derail from it; she’s waiting.” 

Ayu scowled from Oliver’s behavior. Though, the concept of getting more answers still tugged over his will. He shook his head, setting himself to forget the previous two minutes that unfolded. “Alright,” he toned out, exiting from the alley and passing Oliver, “let’s get going.”

“Ayu?” He turned back to find Oliver pointing the opposite direction. “It’s this way.”

“… Damnit-”

***

“So, continuing on with our conversation-”

Oh god, Ayu groaned in his head.

“Did you say something?” Oliver turned with a confused face. 

“It’s nothing,” Ayu quickly brushed off. And Oliver walked on without a second breath after.

“I wonder, did I just see a command or-”

What do you want, Akeldama?

“Oh, not much,” he clicked, “But I’ve been meaning to ask: how do you think of your companions?”

Why would you want to know?

He giggled. “There can be a million reasons why, Ayu. You can never know what it could be with one’s feelings and words. Too contradictory.”

You have feelings? 

Akeldama never answered the question. 

“I want to know how you’re doing with your relationships. A simple thing of the heart.” 

Ayu sighed, Annette and Oliver are cool, that’s it.

“… What about Oliver, after what you’ve discovered?”

Ayu held his breath. I don’t want to answer. 

“Alright,” he calmly replied, “why don’t you then?”

I- I don’t know what to think of him.

“Ah, a flight of feeling I see-”

Why are you making me answer questions when you won’t give me any when I ask?

“Oh,” Akeldama replied. “So that’s what you want, huh? -”

Don’t make it a wish, I swear.

“Relax, I wouldn’t waste a wish like that.”

Good. You’re never useful with the wishes anyways. 

���So, you’re saying it wasn’t useful of me to save you from death?” Akeldama laughed at the question.

Depends on how you think about it- Arg! Ayu screamed inside. Can’t you just give me something to work with here? 

“… Something?”

Yes, something. 

A tinge of silence lurked as Akeldama’s reply disappeared. Until, “Well, I suppose I can give you something.”

Ayu blinked. Really?

Akeldama hummed a nod. “Now listen closely,” his cheeky tone began to linger. Though, Ayu focused more nevertheless. “Have you ever heard of demons?”

Ayu shook his head, a baffled face on him. What? What do you mean by that?

“No, no, no,” he repeated, “That’s all I’m giving you.”

Ayu scoffed with a stomp. You little fuck, that doesn’t solve anything! He would have continued though his stomp caught his own attention to worry about Oliver’s. 

However, Oliver continued to walk along with him. Relived, thank god, he didn’t notice.

“You’re welcome.”

No, you don’t get a ‘thanks’. You didn’t help.

“You simply told me to give you ‘something’, so I did just that.”

Something useful! –

“For future reference,” he finished. 

Ayu kicked a rock in frustration, but the momentum caused the stone to bounce back and hit his leg. “Shit,” he hissed. Akeldama laughed at him. 

You’ve never been useful.

“Come on, I always try to be,” he pouted. “Even if it’s just for myself.”

You’re terrible. 

“Yet you put up with me,” his tongue slurred at the ‘you’. “Contradictory.”

I can’t even get away from you without solving anything else. Ayu’s words laid lethargic. 

“Then do something about it,” Akeldama told him. 

How?!

Akeldama nipped on what to say. “Well, being more assertive is one thing.”

Ayu scoffed. Don’t even know what you mean by that. 

Akeldama sighed. “Simply asking and begging for answers isn’t going to get you anywhere. You have to be firmer, more aggressive to get what you want.”

I…-

“Just imagine holding someone by the throat; threaten them. It’s that easy, even with me.”

I, Ayu’s heart sank in fear, I can’t do that.

“Of course, you can. Give it some time and it wouldn’t take you a second.”

I could never do that. His hands formed gripping fists. Glass that never existed broke against his fingers.

Akeldama’s voice grew vacant in Ayu’s head. A short silence loomed upon him waiting for the being to mock him or leave once more. However, a short, stifled laugh choked out of him. “Oh, oh really?” His voice rang in aggressive sarcasm. “You’ve already tried to kill so many monsters and allowed so many to die.”

Stop.

“You- you beat Oliver without a second stop of breath-”

I SAID STOP! Ayu screamed. 

The world froze for a greyish moment then. All while Ayu panted from holding his breath. Movement cricketed without Ayu’s notice. However, once the boy relaxed his bones and mind, fear stroke him again as he was greeted with monochrome. 

“Wh-what?” He breathed. He turned around and round, blinking in disbelief of his surroundings. Dead silence deafened him and his eyes stroked tears from no walking, no car fumes, nothing. Akeldama, stop this right now.

Reminded in a flash, Ayu bolted his head to Oliver with widened, vermillion eyes. The redhead stood frozen along with everyone else in the crowd. “No,” Ayu gasped. 

The boy stood at the peak of breaking down, almost crying next to Oliver out of a new disaster. Akeldama, please stop this-

“Oh, there she is.” The world breathed in color once more as Oliver pointed outwards in the streets. 

Ayu blinked with his eyes burning in red. The city life had returned to normal in the second of his crying breath. 

“I… What-?”

“Hey, Alice,” Oliver called out. He waved his hands towards an opening crowd. He walked to a certain woman in the crowd who stared aimlessly at the streets ahead of them. 

The redhead managed to grab her attention though it took time in the matter. However, once she’d quip her eyes to the two, she greeted them, “Oh, Oliver! Forgive me but your mobiles are always fascinating to observe.” 

She smiled at an ambulance tracking down a car crash. Oliver eyed the cars while Ayu caught up his mind to his own confusion. 

“Right…” Oliver said. “Nice to see you too.” 

The boy nudged Ayu forward as he whispered at him to smile, but Ayu stared in distraught. “So, Alice, this is Ayu.” Oliver mumbled, “As you already know.”

A glimpse of a glare was caught by the black-haired boy from Alice. His paranoia was not of help at the moment either as he stared back in worry. 

“It is nice to be of acquaintance with you,” she spoke down to him with a smile. Her knees wobbled in hesitance of something or other while she greeted him by hand. “You want knowledge, correct?”

He nodded akin to her knees. “Yeah…”

Trust her, a voice said. 

But I don’t want to, he thought back.

“And you’re gonna give me lessons, right?” Oliver brought himself to attention again. 

Alice replied back to him in a rush, “Of course! I was simply checking if I called the right college for the boy.”

“Just making sure.” Oliver patted Ayu on the shoulder. Only to then whisper to him with an eye on the distracted woman. “Don’t worry, Ayu. This probably won’t go wrong.”

“Probably?”

“They’re murderers. But I am too so there’s not much to expect.” 

“I…” The bluntness of the situation kept Ayu with no words.

Alice asked them, “Are you two ready to go now?”

“Sure but,” Oliver directed throughout the entire area, “how are we getting there anyways?”

The woman left a finger on her chin. “Oh right, you’ve only ever gone to Fowls unconsciously.” 

She stepped deeper into the streets, excusing the city-folk walking by. Snatching a book from her dress-pocket, she opened the tiny leather cover. 

Ayu squinted to see the book from a distance, to no avail of only tiny scribbles of words. However, to his surprise, a door appeared in front of her. No magic word nor smoke of a ‘poof’, the door merely stood at the edge of the sidewalk with no wall or house attached. The door itself held rough edges; its carvings rounded about like a simple drawing yet shaved in splinter points. From flowers to spades, the entrance reveled in its old, wooden state. 

“Woah…” 

“Uh Alice?” Oliver raised his hand from the side. “Nobody here’s seeing this, right?”

Alice turned back at them, hiding away the book yet again. “Yes, we’re nonexistent to them at the moment.”

“Isn’t that what I wish for,” Oliver muttered. 

Ayu chuckled, “Isn’t that a shitty wish?” 

Oliver cocked his head to Ayu as he shook his head. “Ayu, are you a telepath or what?” 

“Huh?” 

“Boys, we mustn’t waste too much time here.” Alice opened the door to reveal another area entirely. 

Oliver growled at her demand. Though, he walked on ahead anyhow. “I’ll tell you about it later,” he told. 

Ayu nodded back, without a clue of his question, and joined him. 

The boy entered into the new world with a dry gulp. Not needing to adjust his eyes from the grey skies, he gazed at the wide view ahead of him. So, this is where Oliver’s been, he thought. A field laid before him carrying layers of long and short grasses that glistened with a desert green hue. An endless valley of trees ran down the horizon up ahead. No sound tickled the boy’s ears and instead tickled his legs from plants below. The grey skies must have left room for fresh rains that would drip over his messy hair and water the vast land of unknown. He pondered if any fruits and berries grew, or if there was a house that would carry any sweet smoke from the forest ahead-

“Ayu, are you listening?” Oliver poked him by the side, making Ayu jolt. Ollie shifted his eyes to Alice, who walked ahead of them on a lecture. 

Ayu blinked. “She was talking?”

Oliver rolled his eyes. 

“I didn’t know she was talking,” Ayu searched for excuses in his head. 

“Yeah, I noticed.” Oliver smiled, almost seeming to laugh. “You had a kinda space-y face.”

“No, I didn’t,” Ayu retorted. “I just thought this looks… cool.” A tint of red darkened onto his face. He tugged a chunk of his hair in the process. 

Oliver moved his hand from pulling on his hair, carefully so. “Suit yourself,” he noted. 

He shook his head from the conversation to focus on the woman for once. A glance of Alice while she talked caught Ayu’s attention more than her speaking. Her fair skin with blonde hair seemed peculiar. Back to Oliver was the same. 

“You guys look nothing alike,” he stated. 

“I know, right?”

“Well to be precise,” Alice finally stopped with her ramblings. “Oliver gets almost everything from his father.”

Oliver spoke back, “Oh really?”

She continued, “he was exactly as I hoped to be truthful. Though I admit there were some errors in the process.” She lifted her hand to almost make contact with Oliver’s head, though he pushed it back. 

“Don’t touch, please.” 

She hesitated to put the hand down, but did so willingly. “It’s nice that my son is in his image, isn’t it?” She walked a few steps forward and changed the topic. “Eilwen will be here any minute, Ayu… Unless she’s hiding around here.”

“Hiding?” 

“Eilwen, show yourself!” She turned back at the boys, “Forgive me, she isn’t quite… fond of new people.”

“How,” Oliver queried. 

“She likely,” Alice dotted her fingers together, “has been watching us.”

A rustle came from the long grasses ahead. Some crinkled and fell over from age with empty impact. Though, the grasses moved along as if they were curtains, revealing the figure behind them. 

“Now, you didn’t have to word it like that, Cecily.” Her voice did not chirp like Alice’s. Rather, she spat with a nasally tone.

“Oh, Eilwen, come over here!” 

The new woman trudged her way over to them. The view of her cleared the closer she came over. A baggy, oversized coat of a brown plaid covered up her whole body past her knees. Sleeves dangled over her nimble, gloved hands. With those hands, she then adjusted the bell-shaped hat against her short and messy hair. Her appearance was more apparent than Alice’s typical beauty.

Once she arrived, she matted her coat, swatting some grass flakes in the meanwhile. 

“This,” Alice started, “is Eilwen, Ayu. She’ll be the one to tell you anything you’d like to know.”

Eilwen greeted him with a stink-eye. She crossed her arms as she huffed, “It’s a pleasure to be of service to you.”

She brought more of a threatening presence than Alice, that is for sure. “Nice to meet you too,” Ayu stuttered. 

Eilwen tilted her head, “Come with me.” A door appeared right beside her, a darker wood than the previous one. She opened the door as it shared a peek of a dark abyss of a room. 

“Don’t be a show-off,” Alice murmured. 

Eilwen began entering. “Now, it’s not my fault that you don’t memorize.”

“It’s a part of my magic!” She argued.

Oliver tapped Ayu yet again before they separated. “Okay, so she might be giving you a death glare but you’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“If not, you can always punch her or something,” Oliver shrugged at the suggestion. 

The advice made Ayu squirm at the violence. Nothing seemed comfortable at the moment. No help matted the situation. All there was, was a deep breath before he stepped into the chamber. A soft goodbye could be heard in the distance but his attention arrived once the door slammed behind him. 

Ayu jumped at the sound but whisked his head back around after shaking a tad. The room was small and dark. Black shaded the walls and floor, creating white outlines that were the corners and creeks. In the middle carried a single table unable to hold one’s food but instead a flamed light to illuminate the space. 

“Now,” Eilwen started, “you don’t know anything from what I recall, yes?”

“I- What do you mean?”

“Akeldama, of course.”

Ayu gasped with the tiniest air he had. “So, I was right!”

“It appears you were,” she slides in, “–with how obvious it was– but how much do you know of magic?”

“Huh?”

“How much do you know of him? Or anything of his motives?”

“Uhm…” Ayu twiddled his hoodie-string. “I don’t know? I just know he’s an asshole?” 

“Oh, we all know that,” she threw a hand. “The question is why are you the one he prioritizes, but even you don’t know anything of it.”

“Yeah? That’s why I came here.” Ayu stated, “I want to know.”

Eilwen sighed to then rummage her hand through her big pockets. “Alright then,” She raised up a pocket watch out of it. “This toy will show visions of the past to help guide through what I can show.”

“Really?!” Ayu’s face lit up and moved over to view the tiny watch. 

“Yes– really.” She moved her arm up, now out of his reach. Her face showing signs of irritation, doubled. She grumbled in her words, “I hope to be of help.”

-

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

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 11 #swearing warning #self-injury warning #suicidal thoughts warning #gel warning?? #goopey substance #panic #cannibalism reference? #bst ayu #bst akeldama #bst oliver #bst alice #bst eilwen #this is a big uh oh ayu moment

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | The Pocketwatch

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

-

“How does it work?” Ayu’s legs almost jumped in curiosity. Such magic was exactly like what he had seen from a comic, only, without a simple trinket. 

“You open and close it– but that’s not what’s important at the moment!” Eilwen swatted her free hand around Ayu’s face. Ayu complied as she said, “What would you like to know first?”

“Oh,” he reminded himself, “yeah… I really need this one, so can you tell me about the monsters?”

“What monsters?”

“You gotta know them.” Ayu’s arms fumbled to recreate their image. “They’re big, scary, kinda ghost looking but like to stab?”

“The Iblis monsters?” An eye twitched from Eilwen’s confused look.

“That’s what they’re called?”

“Oh, my Lord-.” Eilwen placed a hand on her forehead. “You actually don’t know anything.”

“Can’t you tell me already?” Ayu’s expression lowered from her tired attitude. 

Eilwen’s brows furrowed. “I’m afraid not. Alice told me not to give information on them but I didn’t actually think you needed it!”

“I get it. I’m dumb, but damn…” Ayu picked on some dry skin; no solution to the question making him itch. “Then, why is this all happening anyways? For everybody and me, I mean.”

“Oh well that’s simple enough.” For the first time, she opened her pocket watch. And with the snap of it closing shut yet again, the flame in the middle of the room began to fade. The room melted along with the light as new ones grew into new scenery. In front of them was a boy, brightness all around him in his short stature. His light figure glowed from his white hair and skin, while his tunics and layers of silk matted him to a royal status with his circlet made of gold and shiny coal. “You already know Akeldama.”

The rare sight stunted Ayu, and in a baffled surprise, he asked, “Am I able to… touch him?”

“Why so?”

“I’ve never been able to, and its making me wonder,” he answered truthfully. 

A click of the tongue was heard. “For him, no.” Eilwen walked towards the image smiling in pride. “They’re similar to an illusion; something clear to our minds but not our bodies.” She waved over the boy. Her hand passed through his body with ease. 

Ayu processed her words. “… So, if I put my mind to it, can I punch him or something?”

“No.” The boy mumbled a swear. “But let’s move on with your question: Akeldama is some sort of being with immense amount of power and dark magic. Presumably, a devil of sorts, which would explain his terrible mannerisms in ruling.”

The scene cleared from blurry vision Ayu had not realized before. Flames formed behind Akeldama in vigorous fashion. Small houses built under the burning light and drifted away in ashes. 

“He’s killed thousands, as legends say.” Her voice was void of pity. She stared at the view with Ayu, her face dull without a sign from tragedy. “But, he also saved dozens. Horribly, if I may add.” 

Eilwen clicked her watch yet again. The scene formed into the forest Ayu stood only minutes ago. As the land filled in focus, the woman walked on. Ayu followed. 

Stepping upon soundless grass, a blur of color came from the distance. Viewing closer, the blur changed to people in all shapes and sizes. Their clothes shined in all sorts of colors as they all gathered in a circle. Eilwen entered into the clump, Ayu followed. His body shifted between people as he bumped into many. 

“Didn’t you say these were like illusions?”

“Depends on the event,” she answered. “They still can’t feel us, but one thing I know from all of time is that Akeldama is untouchable.”

Ayu’s small brows furrowed as he shuffled against the crowd of strangers. 

“He created our society from, what we could tell as, boredom. But his way in recruitment for many didn’t consist of greed or malice, but instead desperation and escape.” The chatter charged in anxiety and silence. Whispers reached out beyond all and overlapped between others’ words. “He came along offering immortality, power, and above all else, a way out of our lives. However, the offering and contracts quickly became a threat.”

“Fuck…” Ayu stopped pushing himself away from others. He paused his movement in reminiscence of Akeldama’s offerings. 

“From what Alice believes,” Eilwen added. “Akeldama does have intentions for his actions.” She made a look at Ayu. 

Ayu began tugging his hair again. 

“Only we may never find out. Even with my magic, I can only go so far as to the 1600s, and at that, some parts are blocked.”

Once they exited the circle, Ayu asked, “Hasn’t anybody tried to take over? Or kill him?”

Eilwen scoffed, “As if that would occur.” She pointed at the crowd. “All of our abilities come from Akeldama’s own magic, and he always isolates himself in his throne room in which only Alice is able to enter. And if anyone were to attempt, they’d be aware he can kill in a millisecond. A suicide attempt, if you will.” 

“So, pretty much a no.”

“Anyone would kill him if they had the chance,” she stated.

“Or put him in a choke-hole…”

She scoffed, “We wish.”

A second of thought necessitated him. “I’m gonna have to wait more for most of these, aren’t I,” asked Ayu. 

“Practically so, yes.”

His face flattened. “I’m going nowhere with this, then?”

“Regardless of knowledge,” she faced him directly in the eyes, “you’re not going to be able to stop him with your nature.”

Ayu groaned, pulling his bangs harder. “Why the fuck do I even try?”

“I’d mind you about the language but there’s no point with what we do,” she commented.

Ayu hummed with an agitated pitch. Though he realized other options are always possible. “… Then, what about Oliver? Can’t I get background on him?”

Eilwen stared into space for quite some time. Her thoughts seemed to be fixated from all Ayu could ponder. “You can gain some. But only some.” She set her watch again. “Though his family line is crucial in the development of this society.”

The forest melted in color. The circle of civilians devolving into lifeless blobs of nothing. The grey skies turned to the dark bricks of a ceiling. And walls closed in behind them. Dirt and musk engraved itself on the floors along with small blood splatters and spilled water. The only light to appear in the desolate waste of a room was a small window unreachable by height, and the small hole that poked out of the wooden door. 

In the corner was a girl, a few years senior of Ayu. Her body contorted to a ball shaking in every limb. Her light hair was ragged and greasy, dangling across her head and legs in clumps. The hair covered up the view of searing scars, as well as the chains stuck upon her wrists.

“1610: … Cecily Rixon, or as you likely know her as, Alice. She was accused of witchcraft after remedying her mother through illness, and taken to the chambers to be punished until she admitted her crimes, guaranteeing her execution.”

Ayu stared at the chilling image in front of him, though, his own chills never stopped him from moving at that moment. “So, she was hurt to death?” His feet led him on towards the girl. He stood above her and watched her cower from nothing but her own pain. 

“I-indeed.” 

He lowered his knees, then adjusted himself to where he sat across from her. He pondered as she cried up dry tears. “This was… normal, right?” 

“I wish to say it wasn’t,” Eilwen answered. “… She was about to admit to her ‘crimes’ back then, however, -”

The door opened slowly, but not to the attention of Ayu. The girl whisked her head up at the small creak of sound. Her covered up face now revealed itself to the scene. Dry skin filled up her cheeks with a cut on the side. A swell from another cheek punctured and bruised her lip. All and even a burning brand mark seeped by the end of her neck. Ayu studied it all before turning back to see who was at the door. Though, it was easily recognizable by that point. 

“He’d arrived at her darkest day.”

Her throat trembled at her own words as she spat, “I work with the devil, sir… You may take me by the grave but that won’t- that won’t stop him.” The words jumbled in its own confusion.

“You may lie as you like,” Akeldama said calmly, “but, that may never work for someone like me, as disappointing as that is.” He entered the cell. His bored expression looked down upon her as her face twisted to confusion. 

“You’re not the guard.”

“I know I’m not,” he replied. “I arrived for something else.” 

“What’s your reasoning?”

“To give you a-” He rolled his eyes. “Bargain.”

The girl never replied to him. 

He sighed, “You don’t believe this sort of life is worthwhile? Don’t you?”

No answer. 

“Your family pushed you to labor then to this state only because of some men in armor scaring them. They formed you into this state without hearing any of your pleas or thinking anything of a truth from you. You’re in this state because you could never fight back, not even speak back to them. They’re all of unfair power against you.” 

She turned away from him.

“You can do something about that; you’re able to stand for yourself and prosper.” He told her. “You can get out of this life where you’re controlled by their lies… and I’ll help.”

“What a lie,” Eilwen twitched. 

Ayu’s focus completely shifted to Akeldama. His mind numbed from his contradiction. Though, most of all, he thought, why haven’t you told that to me…?

The girl turned back around, shaky and slow. “H-how?”

He offered his hand. “Come with me and you can live a new life. I’ll give you power; I’ll give you freedom. You’ll live however you’d like, as long as you follow what I say.”

Her eyes shimmered in a flash. “What is it you’ll say?”

He looked away. “Small things. Nothing major in the grand scheme of the world. I need time to have everything set, to be frank, so you’ll need patience.” A small smile creeped from his lips with the sense of genuineness. “But take my hand, and one day you’ll live whatever you imagine.”

“I always hated seeing this,” Eilwen sighed. “Yet, nonetheless she accepted his deal, and left her life of before.”

The girl reached out, her hand almost as bony as Ayu’s. She grasped Akeldama’s, and they both disappeared. 

“She was the first to be a part of Akeldama’s reign, and the first to discover the true cost of joining him before the rest of us.” She reset the watch. “Akeldama began recruiting multiple others after her.”

Trees grew around the two and surrounded them by their branches and roots. The sky was blocked by fresh green leaves though way up above creeped a sip of grey. Ayu would have kept his face up, viewing the height of the trees, but a man passed by in a rush.

Ayu stumbled over in surprise, and once he gained balance again, he found the man at his sight. The tall man paced all over the trees, humming a tune off-pitch and off-beat. He adjusted his poignant ginger hair back over and over without an avail to fix his loose hairs. His other hand carried a bouquet of pond flowers and four-leaf clovers drenched all around, including his own suit from fallen down petals. 

After groaning, the man took off with dangling hair on his side. Eilwen walked with him. “Thirty years later in the 1640s, when we were depressingly thriving, a man named Christopher Broichet had joined, originally known as Felicette.” 

Ayu tiptoed around fake branches and rocks. “Are we gonna follow him for all this time?”

“Yes? Is it challenging?” 

“No,” he gave her. “Catching up isn’t gonna be hard at all-” He tripped as soon as he swore. 

Eilwen shook her head and proceeded. It forced Ayu to bring his weight back together and rush back. “It isn’t that long of a walk.”

“It’s not the walk,” Ayu huffed, “It’s the forest! Everything’s small and it’s kinda dark.” 

Eilwen told him, “You’ll get used to it in time.”

He ignored the comment. Grumbling while stepping over a log.

“He had caught the attention of Alice, surprisingly considering her stoic-ness at the time, but they’d quickly become the society’s lovers.”

The bark walls opened to another open field, though with a cottage by the side and a leafless tree far in the midst. Alice had sat there waiting, dressed in a fine gown and her hair tied within a bun. 

Felicette dashed towards her, clamping his heels on the ground to make a full stop once he met her. 

“I have a good reason for being late!” He handed her the bouquet. 

Alice picked up a clover from the pile almost falling over. “You must like these, don’t you?”

Sitting down with her, he smiled. “I think they heavily compliment you.”

“They do, especially with the five others you’ve gotten me.” 

Felicette eyed her. “Shouldn’t those have died already?”

“Of course not,” she exclaimed. “This is Fowls, everything lasts forever here. ‘less you’re human.”

He chuckled at her. “I’d say that’s very unlikely.” His innocent composure gently kissed Alice by the cheek.

Ayu squinted at the two, specifically Felicette. “… He’s Oliver’s dad?”

“Yes, from what she tells us.”

He tilted and shook his head, right as Felicette lifted Alice up into the tree and making her giggle in delight. No, I don’t see it. 

“They brought a nice light to the people.” Soft laughter evoked as the two sat together on the tree. “Christopher had lots of charisma to inspire the land.”

With doubt, Ayu nodded. “Do you see that with Oliver,” he asked.

A thump was heard from the distance. The two turned to see Felicette fallen from the tree. “… That’s difficult to say, especially with the intelligence difference.” Nothing necessarily interesting occurred then, so Eilwen continued her lesson. “Throughout the years, it came to notice that he, along with many others in his movement, stopped following Akeldama’s order of murder.”

“Years?”

“Akeldama was lenient on it for a few decades.” A click from her pocket was heard. “However, eventually…”

Flames appeared again. Rising smoke brought Ayu to a cough as he stumbled in the old environment. “Why does this one feel more real? -”

Eilwen swatted ashes away. “I remember it more,” she answered, “That’s all.” 

Ayu’s eyes squinted from the burning sensation only to meet a body in front of him: stabbed in multiple parts of their limbs and torso, dripping of blood and a black substance. He choked at the sight and blinked nonstop in surprise. In wide eyes, he shook up to view the dead face of Oliver’s father. 

“1701, November 1st, Christopher was executed in the eyes of all of us. Akeldama said to have done it as a warning for those who rebelled, and have people working properly again. Though, the opposite happened.” 

Ayu stared at the body which soon corroded into nothingness. … Oliver wasn’t born in the 1700s. 

“The society began to die out afterwards in lost hope. Assisted suicides began occurring and succeeding to the point that only few of us were left.”

The scene fast forwarded in front of them. The flames and houses faded into grey ashes. A sense of the world went numb again for Ayu. “Akeldama seemed prepared for this event however, because hours later, he brought something new.” 

Two figures walked in the distance. Ruins crowded over them, courting to their soft, patted steps. One of the figures revealed themselves more clearly than the other. His small stature shadowed the other with only the tiniest difference of height. Long black hair dusted around his face as he seemed to be shaking in ashes. Yet, the taller guided him with a held hand; no clear reaction in sight. 

“He saved a single child from that village he burned.” The child stumbled upon his feet next to Akeldama. “He’s never revealed his true name to us, but he’s referred to as Vittorino.”

The name rung in Ayu’s mind, though the vague memory of ‘Vittorino’ being said was something he could not find. However, at a halt of the scene, Akeldama bent down ever so slightly to Vittorino’s height, facing him eye to eye. Words were spoken to the young one, but unheard in the midst of Ayu. 

“There’s been rumors for ages,” Eilwen said, “that Akeldama picked him up because he was to be a religious sacrifice to the village. But, Vittorino never answered anything we asked.” 

The boy nodded to Akeldama before he was blurred away. Ayu blinked as he had not noticed Eilwen’s click. 

Alice appeared again, along with the young boy, in the darkest depths of the words. Laying against the tree, Vittorino hid from her. While she, peering up above him, attempted conversation. 

“To cope with her loss, Alice tried to get along with Vittorino and help him as the youngest in our society. Though, he never cooperated with her in the end, and grew more akin to Akeldama as years went by.” 

In distraction, Ayu peered his eyes to the setting around them. The abyss and blind color of the forest guided him nowhere, but the faint sense of the nightly color comforted him. A sense of ease cradled him in the unknown dark, while he wondered if that is why Vittorino hid in the land. 

“After the arrival of Vittorino, Akeldama seemed to have found another practical way of gaining followers.” Another child appeared from the dark in wandering, catching the attention of Alice. She eyed in shock with the blood found in vague sight on the kid. “Then started the second era, where he began handpicking and ‘rescuing’ children. Raising them to be sick and sinister.”

And just like that, the world disintegrated into the nothingness of the original room. “For the most part, Alice was left alone.” Ayu noticed Eilwen’s direction at him. “Then all of a sudden, she claimed she was going to have a child of hers and Christopher.”

“But-” 

“We imagined she’s gone mad, but once she explained herself, it seemed that the wish child was a blessing and a curse.”

Ayu gnawed his cheek in confusion. “But… how was he made then?”

“That is another thing I’m unable to say, sadly.” Sighing crept over her breath as she wrestled in her pockets. “And I believe that’s all you needed to know, correct?”

Ayu copied her pocketing movements. “Can’t tell if this was even useful or not. All I really know now is that Akeldama still sucks and Oliver seriously has a weird family.” 

“Well, that’s an excellent summary.” Eilwen walked across from him and onto the door, placing her hand on the handle. “Now then, Cecily should have had plenty of time to talk with Oliver. We should get going.” 

Before she could open the door, Ayu stopped her. “W-wait.”

“What is it?”

“How did you get here then? ‘Cause you told me about Alice and all her stuff.”

Eyes widened, she shuffled. “That’s rather unnecessary information.”

“But you were a part of this too.”

“I got here by the dumbest of means,” she spat. 

A light clicked in Ayu’s mind. “You were dumb too?”

“In all fairness, yes.” She squeezed onto the handle. “I was… in love with my dearest friend, and we were both poor peasants. Yet I was put in an arranged marriage for my family to have some riches, and I had to leave her behind.”

“But why did you come here?”

“Simple. I thought it was unfair for her to stay poor and Akeldama noticed. My contract was by the terms that she would take my place in life and have all the fortunes of food and luxuries.”

Ayu blinked. “That’s… really nice.”

She scowled. “It was my luck in living. If it weren’t for my contract, people would’ve claimed me as a witch for charming the noble and executed me.” Hustling against her jacket, her weak voice stated, “She took my place in the end.”

The implications in irony was far too much for Ayu to form words. 

A pause latched between the two of them, but before one could say a word, Eilwen opened the door. “Come on, let’s go.”

***

“Oh, Eilwen! You came at perfect timing!” Alice beamed with a worried smile. “I think just about wrapped up everything with Oliver.” They both were sitting down next to the cottage Ayu viewed in the past. Though before he could mention it, Eilwen walked by him and gave a few words to the other. 

“Please tell me everything went sufficiently.”

“I did all that you advised but you know I can’t speak like that!” Alice hissed in a pout.

A shake of the head and a groan later, “Everything I told you was simple and for you not to go too far.”

The women babbled to each other onwards of their time, to Ayu’s attentional dismay. In disinterest, he sat by Oliver, comfortable against the plain grass, and spoke to him. “I think I just had one of the weirdest history classes.”

With a hand on top of his mouth, Oliver replied, “Better than awkward talking and anxiety from an adult.”

“About what?”

“About me, but she was too nervous about saying anything.”

Glimpsing over to Alice excusing herself to Eilwen, and alongside memory of her past, he said, “Makes sense…” 

However, Oliver’s ears seemed to attend back to Alice and Eilwen in keen study. Ayu imitated. 

“What? You know he doesn’t like people knowing about him!” Alice exclaimed. 

But then came a sigh from Oliver. 

“What,” Ayu asked.

“Alice told me I had to ‘grow accustom’ to eating first before anything else.” 

Cringing shivered in Ayu’s reminder. And yet, the circumstances were dire regardless. “You’d have to at some point.”

“I know but,” he played with the end of his cardigan, “out of anyone here, you’d understand how tough it is.” 

Ayu shifted his gaze away. “I don’t think so.” He nodded at the women. “They seem pretty normal in thinking to me.” 

Oliver rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but they could be tricking us, Ayu. They- they kill, so they can probably lie too.” 

Eilwen’s lesson flashed through his mind. I doubt it but… “I guess that’s true.” 

Silence evoked them again until Oliver asked suddenly, “What do you think I am, Ayu?” 

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well,” he shuffled in his seat, “I guess I’ve just been seen as a lot of things recently. Like a random kid; a monster; the son of immortal assassin parents, one being dead; a kind of intentional mistake; and a canine… it’s all messy. But what do you think?”

Ayu tapped on his feet in thought. Though the answer was quite simple. “I don’t know, Ollie. You’re just another person with a fucked-up life like me, maybe worse, right?”

Oliver shrugged and nodded.

“But I do wanna try and help a little. It’s the least I can do for anything right now.”

The boy, with his pale green eyes, stared at him for that bit of time, wide and light against the dimly grey background. And with his kindly eyes, he smiled and nodded. “Thanks.”

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Crimson Capture | November 1st | A Mother | A Demon | A Child | The Wolf | Bloody Fingers | A Monochrome World | Next >>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 12 #swearing warning #blood warning #gore warning #torture warning #branding warning #minor death warning #with a corpse yes #does it count as a death penalty? dunno #assisted suicides #mention of cannibalism #bst ayu #bst eilwen #bst akeldama #bst alice #bst felicette #bst vittorino #bst oliver #i'm releasing this early because i think most of us aren't doing anything for the next while

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | I’ll Have My Day

hello! things are yet again calm before another storm for this chapter, i’d have to say. but there are some sections that i appreciate for just existing in this one as well.

remember that this is a first draft with only minor edits, and enjoy! comments and reception are heavily appreciated.

-

A day followed by after Ayu’s time in Fowls. Instead of the dead breeze of the forest, the morning woke him up through traffic and an early store-keeper’s yell.

Creeping awake from his freezing body, Ayu sat up from his thin blanket and shivered in his jacket. He shifted his spaced gaze to the alley’s ground. It was cold and shapeless, but the tiny cracks of grass formed a gentle frost through the night. 

Breaths formed clouds in front of him. And he buried himself in his jacket as his own frosting skin had already woken him up. 

But then, memory served his groggy mind well. 

Ayu zapped himself awake and scurried over to his ‘stuff’ pile. After digging through Oliver’s pineapples, medicine, and whatever he found in parts of the forest, he recovered his walkie-talkie after weeks of having no use.

Clicking on the connection button, the walkie hissed as he called out in excitement, “Annette, Annette, Annette-”

The call seemed endless, for Ayu made no stop of saying her name until she replied. Though, she only managed to pick up once his voice grew sore. 

“Ayu… Why are you calling me at six in the morning on a Saturday?”

“Because we’re having a meeting today,” he explained. “Go and tell Oliver to come over too.” 

The walkie’s buzz filled in the gap between Annette’s reply. “... Are you telling me to go to a meeting right now…?”

“What time is it?” He asked, as the sun had no sign of rising. 

“I already said it’s six a.m.”

“Oh.” His winter schedule had already started. “Shit.”

“Lort, I’m exhausted,” Annette commented. “It’s been a long week, Ayu, sorry-”

“No, no, it’s my fault.”

“No. I usually wake up at five. Today’s just a day off before church.”

Ayu tensed his hand at the device. “It’s okay, Annette. You can sleep some more, I’ll wait.” Before he could drop the walkie-talkie in guilt, he added the important notion again, “Just don’t forget to text Ollie for when he wakes up.”

“Gotcha’.” He heard from what he left behind him. “Thanks, Ayu.”

In the musky morning, he said to nobody, “It’s nothing.”

***

“You should have paid more attention to the time Ayu.”

“I know, Lillie, but I can’t tell.”

“Look up at the sky,” she giggled. “There isn’t even daylight.”

“I get it.” Scribbles filled Ayu’s new page while winds tried blowing the paper away. “I already said it was my fault.”

“As it is. You just disturbed a nice morning for her.”

“She- she had a busy week…”

“And you interrupted her only time of rest. Sounds rather careless.”

Ayu broke his pencil tip. “No, I-” His words would have continued if it weren’t for a figure by his entrance, not of Lillie smiling at him, but of Oliver. 

Accessorized with a pillow, blanket, his ukulele, and another bag, Oliver entered into the alley nonchalantly with all the items. However, it’d only been half an hour since his talk with Annette. 

“Why are you here this early?”

Oliver placed down the sleeping materials. “I pulled another all-nighter and my mom left for work early in the meanwhile.”

“Then why…?” He nudged at the pillow.

The boy sat down by him, nuzzling up in his extra coat. “I thought I could take a nap here. But,” he passed the bag to Ayu, “I brought leftovers from last night too. Fork included.”

A grumbling stomach left Ayu to stare blankly at the food. “Can I eat it right now?”

“Of course, you can.” The direction of Oliver’s answer faced his ukulele instead of Ayu, as he already began opening it up. 

Another morning wind blew, lunging Ayu to warm up his legs. He hissed at the weather. 

“… I should have brought you a jacket.”

“It’s fine. This isn’t the coldest it’ll be.”

Oliver huffed in the frosty air, laying down the instrument he held and grabbing the blanket. “When the meeting’s over, I can take you to my place again. For now, take the blanket.”

Hesitant, Ayu snatched the cover out of Oliver’s hands and wrapped it around himself. His cocoon welcomed him in a snug embrace, its fluffy fabric softening his dry skin. “Why’d you bring such a nice one?”

Oliver rubbed his hands off of the tail of the cocoon. “I just found it in my closet and it looked comfy.”

The child in the blanket smiled smugly at the new warmth.

“You can keep it if you want,” Oliver chortled. “You definitely look comfortable.”

Despite the satisfying bliss, a simple few facts knocked Ayu back to questioning. “Don’t you still want to sleep?”

“Yeah… I’m gonna need to eat in a few days so I’m ‘bout to be out of it soon.”

He tottered his new blanket around himself, but gently tossed it aside for the winds to meet him again. 

“Ayu-”

“I’ll eat while you sleep. Since I got some sleep.” He opened the streaming, microwaved food from the container, revealing baked ham and other goods. The scrumptious smell already distracted him. 

“But…”

“God, this looks good.”

He already began devouring the plate, too focused to listen to Oliver’s answer. “Alright…”

The seconds the small yet hefty meal remained in the bowl was minimum, as Ayu chowed down on some of the bread he had gotten the day before as an after-snack. While biting through, he marked his gaze back at Oliver, who had set up his own bed. 

Ayu’s old and withering blanket managed to be reused as a sort of bedsheet to cushion the hard floor. Oliver had neatly adjusted himself underneath the cover brought in, alongside having his head eased by his pillow and Ayu’s pillow being hugged his arms. 

“You’re fast.”

Oliver turned his way to Ayu’s eating wall. “You have a good pillow.” 

Their personalities radiated at that moment, one a mess and the other an urbane thing of exhaustion. 

There was no help but laughter.

***

With such a chilling morning, the two relaxed by each other’s side. Ayu sketched calmly next to Oliver, who seemed to bounce lots in his sleep. 

A new scene was set into fruition for the boy. Vague dreams lead his pencil to sketch out a glaring eye, then a flat chin, then a long neck. Rage was embedded in the blank stare he’d created. And a circle was the perfect touch for yelling. Such artistry in an image would make a great impact for the audience and their emotions, right?

“… Probably not.” 

“Probably what?”

Ayu jumped at his seat, whisking himself to see Oliver in his home-made bed and staring at his drawing from a distance. 

“You were awake?”

Oliver trudged his arms to hold himself up. Rubbing his eyes from the rising sun, he answered, “Yeah. It’s hard for me to sleep in general.” 

“… Do you usually stay up all night?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

It took few seconds to process how tiresome he was, but Ayu made a deep breath. He dropped his sketchbook to the side to ask questions. “What do you do all night?”

He plucked on the ukulele he left beside him. “What I do during the day: whatever. Just quietly.”

“Is it because you’re hungry?”

He stopped playing. The note that rung from the last string was choked by a tap from his hand. “Yeah, you can say that.”

Ayu stared at the abyss of his thoughts as he made questions. A memory formed for the new one, though reluctance of asking slowed his words. He looked at Oliver directly. “Can I see your arm? –“ 

He met Oliver with the sketchbook at his hands. Oliver’s eyes peered through the newest pages. By instinct, he lunged at the hand and grabbed the journal back. “Stop it!” 

Oliver held a cheeky, sluggish smile as he chuckled. “What? I just wanna see them.”

Ayu raised a brow, a smidge of a blush shined by his cheeks. Is it the wolf or something? “You didn’t ask.” 

“Well then,” he sat up with good posture, “may I see your new drawings?”

Ayu’s red tint heightened more in the realization that nobody had ever asked. He questioned why he hid them in the first place, but nonetheless, he complied. “Sure.”

Oliver held the book again and scanned through the pages. Ayu watched as he rung his fingers around his hair. New judgement was unpredictable. Except if it’s the wolf, obviously. His neutral expression forced a tense feeling inside of Ayu’s gut in the process of reading. 

“How long have you been drawing?” Oliver asked while flipping a page again. 

“Uh.” Ayu counted with his fingers. “I think six years. Someone told me I was good at it when I was six, so I just kept doing it. But I stopped when I was eight.”

Oliver hummed in response, still scanning. 

He continued, “My parents didn’t pay attention, so I never got advice except that it was good- oh yeah I stopped around the time I was eight… then Annette gave me the journal last year, so,” he counts, “I’ve been drawing for three years.”

Oliver clicked his tongue. “Well, it definitely shows.” 

The vagueness of the comment punched Ayu in the gut. But one page turn later and came a page full of bad handwriting. Ayu’s chest rose at the sight, yet Oliver stared at it for far too long. He uttered, “What’s this?”

“… Oh it’s- they’re my journal entries. Nothing really happens in them though.” 

Oliver scans through once more, while Ayu doubted he could even read them. “Have you ever tried to write something?”

“The entries have enough bad spelling.”

Oliver shook his head. “No, I mean like try and write something, like a poem.” 

“A poem…?” He may have only heard the word once in kindergarten. The lesson itself was lost in his passage of time. 

“Just write random stuff,” he said slowly, “in multiple lines, maybe rhyme it. It’s, uh, like a song if you will.” He gave the sketchbook back to him, a pencil already on his side. He gazed down at the new blank page.

When was the last time I heard a song? Oh yeah, one time during a traffic jam this one guy was blasting-

“Do you need help?”

Ayu snapped out of his thoughts. “Oh, no. I think I’m good… Do I just make a song?”

Oliver lost eye contact. “Uh, sure. You can make it short if you want too. It doesn’t have to be long.” He pulled back his hair. “Write what you want.”

The blank page dawned him far too much. Drawing never took much thinking for him –though improving always baffled him–; however, the start of a word intimidated and struck him at odds. 

Whispers of old pop songs flooded back in his mind. Those that played on the weekend at his car loudly and excitedly. He’d be cheering for the weekly trip where he finally went outside and off to Obodo. The generic lyrics bounced by his ears as the park and playground rested ahead of him. The older girl by his side sang to the music while making captions to his art on a clipboard, handwriting pretty and flowery like her name.

The summer sun beamed at his vision but reality blew at his skin again. The breeze reminded him of the page in front of him as well, to his dismay. Oliver had gone back to playing ahead of him. Ayu shivered in bitterness and began scribbling down the vocabulary he would remember. Words flowed to him simplistically and bluntly all the same. And hard pressure made the pencil squeak at movement. 

After a decent ten minutes, his thoughts were on paper, with reference to those pop songs of old. 

Cold gos by 

Throo on the nite

Snow is shy

and hideing in the sky

and I wayt

day gos away fast

dont be layt 

ill have my day soon

There… that looks okay, I think.

He called out: “Oliver I did it.”

“Really?” He turned around and put down his uke. “I thought it’d take you longer.”

He handed the text. “I just thought of pop songs.”

“Did you copy them?”

“No. Just used a line I heard a lot.” 

Oliver nodded. “Good. I used to copy rhythms of songs I thought was deep so you’re doing better than I did.” He read the lyrics. As he tilting his head, Ayu’s anticipation wracked instead of fear. Yet the time taken to read was lengthier than expected. “Okay your spelling isn’t actually that bad for what you have.”

Why is that the first thing he says, he questioned. The excitement died down to possible critique. 

“Honestly, as simple as it is, it’s a good simple.”

“And?”

“It needs a bit of tweaking, but overall there could be a good rhythm to it. Looks like a nice kids’ song to me.”

A kids’ song?

��It’s cute, I guess you could say.”

Ayu’s impatience pushed his words out. “Can you make a song out of it?”

Oliver’s eyes widened at the page. “Oh. Uh, yeah I guess I can.” 

“Right now?”

He scoffed, “No, not right now. Music takes time.”

Ayu’s curiosity got the better of him. “How long?”

“However long it needs to take. But I don’t think this’ll take that long.” He held the slip of the page itself. “Can I take this?”

“…”

“You can copy it down on another page.”

Slow at first, he nodded. “Why don’t you write it?”

Oliver’s face fell flat. “Yeah… if I read it right at least.”

“Psh, you can do it.” Ayu smiled at Oliver. The master musician would make beauty out of his work in his mind. 

Oliver rewrote on the new page with focus in his eyes. And through some squinting and pausing hands, he teared the new page off of the journal, folded the page and placed it in his pocket. “There.”

Ayu took the sketchbook back. “So, what now?”

Oliver nipped back his instrument. “Thinking of the melody. You can take the blanket back if you want.” He crawled over to the corner, huddling in his own imaginary nest as he plucked a string. “I’ve been thinking of making more suspended chords lately, so I might do that,” he murmured.

Ayu canned a chuckle, unsure of what he meant in the first place. 

***

“Is Oliver here yet?” 

Ayu turned his head from his drawing to find Annette sliding her sneakers into the alleyway. Her composure sloppy and uncoordinated. She didn’t stay up, did she? 

She whipped back the bun that flew over her head. “Oh… he is.” 

“I’ve been here,” Oliver replied. 

“Twenty minutes after you texted him actually,” Ayu added. He then shifted in his blanket cocoon. 

Staring at them both, she straightened back her posture at the harmony of the two. “Huh. Well darn.” Sitting down between the two, she made a deep breath and un-frazzled her hair. Then, like she never changed before, she perked up to start conversation. “So, do you want to start the meeting Ayu?”

He peered at her, brows weighing down his eyes in concern. Though the subject matter carried more weight for all of them. “Yeah, so- wait Oliver, you want me to tell her all of it?”

He shrugged at him. “Not the big one but most of it is fine.”

Understanding what he meant, Ayu agreed. Yet, Annette cocked her head in confusion.

“Okay so it turns out Oliver’s parents are assassins and might be involved with the entire powers thing,” he informed Annette.

“… I’m sorry, what?”

Oliver pointed his hand out to Ayu. “Did you have to say it like that?”

Ayu said back, “What other way do you think you can tell her?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, slowly? Let her process it?”

“You didn’t let me process it.”

“Okay that was by accident and shock-”

“Can you please explain?” Annette interrupted the two by whining. 

Ayu blinked, back from Oliver, then back to her. “Right. So,” he explained the situation, albeit poorly in wording. 

Annette’s mouth gaped with confusion set on her face. “I… Oliver, why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

He avoided his sights from her. “Didn’t know they existed ‘til like, two weeks ago.”

“He’s adopted like us,” Ayu remarked. 

The girl brushed through her hair. “Huh… well three’s a party, I guess.”

Ayu continued, “Yeah, so I met with this chick from his parent’s group and learned a couple of things from her. First there’s-” he paused, remembering the boy in the room. He was the one who did not know everything. “Oliver, can you not be here for right now?”

“What? Why?”

He whispered to Annette, “It’s about Akeldama.”

She eyed him, and dipped her head, telling Oliver, “It’s a personal thing.”

Somehow, the communication between the two, whether it was between her tone of words or expressional speaking, seemed to work. And Oliver stepped out for the moment in time. 

Ayu scooted his way to Annette, huddling next to her in secret conversation. “I might’ve been tricked by Akeldama.”

She cocked her head. “I thought that was obvious.”

“No, no, she told me that almost everyone in the society was tricked to join since he offered them survival and freedom,” he hesitated at the last word, “but then forced them to kill for live.”

“Then what you’re saying is… you made your wishes to live, but it’s going to screw up…?”

With doubt, he shook his head. “Maybe, but us fucking up with the monsters might also be the killing- maybe… okay that sounds dumb saying it out loud.”

Annette stopped him before he could add on. “Not really. But do you know how much the society has to kill then?

In an instant, he blinked three times. “Actually, I don’t know. Shit, I forgot to ask.”

Making her thinking face, with hands holding the chin, Annette guessed, “I wouldn’t think they’d be forced to be mass murderers.”

“I would. It’s Akeldama.”

“Yeah… right.” She hissed at his reminder. “Then, what if it isn’t the monsters then? What do you think will happen?”

“I dunno,” Ayu copied her thinking face, “I didn’t plan this far ahead for the meeting.”

“That isn’t good,” she sighed. 

Ayu slumped from his position. “Yeah… but that’s all I needed to talk with you.” He processed what came to mind next. Though another privacy error occurred. Might as well get it over with. “Can you go out and get Oliver, but you stay over there instead?”

“Did you tell him something new?”

“No, he has something I need to tell him.” Ayu’s thoughts formulated as he talked. 

“Gotcha’. I’ll go get him.”

She walked out, leaving Ayu more time to gather his words together. But in no time, Oliver entered back in. “Alright, what is it now?”

Twiddling his thumbs in his cocoon, Ayu started. “So… you know about your dad, right?”

“Forgot I had one, go on.”

He made a frantic nod. “So, I actually figured out his history yesterday.” 

“And…?”

Ayu taught him the lesson, again poorly. “But it was in the 1700s, I think.”

Oliver stared at him in suspicion. “… That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know, right?!” He blurted out.

“Yeah,” Oliver agreed calmly. “He can’t be my dad then, so who is?”

“I don’t fucking know, that’s the problem.” A strong gust of wind blew his thoughts away. “Oh shit-”

“Did Eilwen say anything else about it?”

Ayu clung to his blanket. “Not really… she wasn’t allowed to go into detail. But he doesn’t really look like you either; his hair was a lot lighter.”

“Still red?”

“Ginger.”

“Oh, god he’s a devil.”

“What?”

“It’s a joke at my school.” He snapped his fingers. “But anything else?”

“Uh… I think she said you were a wish child. Which, now thinking about it, might be a bad thing.”

“What do you mean bad thing?” Oliver asked. “Aren’t I always a bad thing?”

“No- but, I can’t think of how to explain. Wishes just feel like bad luck to me.”

Oliver placed his head on his bent knee. “Well, it’s fitting at least.”

Ayu sighed on his behalf. “I’ll try and get more out of her, the next time I see her.” 

“You’re coming with me again?”

Ayu tipped him, “Whenever she can.” He looked on over to the entrance. Conversation due at the end. “Hey, Annette! You can come back in,” he called out.

“Hm, I have an idea.” 

Bringing herself up to discussion, Ayu and Oliver shifted attention to Annette. 

“What if we’re supposed to be a part of the society, then? Since we have powers and stuff.”

Ayu’s face laid crooked, in reminder of his conversation of Annette. But, he pointed out his eye instead. “If we were, then why would we have these marks? Besides, the leader would have picked us up and have us join immediately.”

Annette gave him a knowing look left the topic. 

“If anything,” Oliver added, “I’m the most involved with them at the moment. You two still need to figure things out.”

Despite the still unknowingness up in the air, Annette smiled. “At least this is the most info we’ve gotten. And in just a month too.”

“I know, I know.” Ayu buried his face in his blanket. “Thank god Oliver’s here now.”

Oliver laughed at the comment. “Oh really?”

“You’re the only reason we got this in the first place.” He muffled his voice to him, hiding his minor embarrassment which the reason was left unknown as well. 

“Sounds like I’m just your gateway,” he quipped. 

“You know what I mean,” he huffed.

“Wait hold on…” Annette’s expression drew her brows together. “What about the monsters?”

Ayu’s own face grew stern. “That was the first thing I asked. But she couldn’t talk about it.”

Oliver kept silent. 

“Really?” She gawked her hand forward. “I thought there’d be something but… let’s just hope there is something about it soon.”

“Wait a minute,” Oliver actually spoke, “There haven’t really been any monster attacks since November started, hasn’t there?”

Annette answered. “No, aside from the forests deaths but Ayu can’t even detect those. But what about it?”

Oliver’s face cringed at the side comment, but went on, “Wouldn’t they come like every two days before? It’s almost December and they’re basically gone.”

Ayu perked his attention at Oliver’s observation. He never noticed that nothing happened, considering he did nothing regardless.

“Yeah… what did happen to them?”

***

“Don’t talk to me like that. There’s no spirits around.”

The boy in the television opened the door, revealing a jump-scare of moaning spirits, only to close it instantly. 

“Alright, so I might have been wrong. Let’s run-”

Oliver chuckled at the joke. He watched Mr. Rious causally on his seat whilst working on his new tune. On the same couch yet again was Ayu, coped up with a pillow and bowl of pasta. 

The meeting ended soon after the questioning of the monsters, as Annette received a call from her father wondering where she was at eight in the morning. Luckily, the cold was beginning to grow more intense and shelter also grew in Ayu’s yearning. Thus, her absence was a blessing for his body heat.

Chewing on his new lunch, not wanting to pay attention to the frightening ghosts, and needing to make a certain topic clear, he decided to ask Oliver again, “So you need to eat in a few days, right?”

Oliver’s reaction was neutral. “Yeah, I don’t feel terrible right now though.”

“That’s good…” He picked up another noodle with his bare hands and ate it. “But Oliver, can I see your arm please?”

The tune he was playing stopped, leaving only the T.V. to make noise. “… Sure, fine. It isn’t as bad as before.”

Ayu gulped. “That’s, better, at least.” 

Oliver pulled his left sleeve up and directed it to Ayu, revealing his marked arm. The black sun still laid peacefully, but above were all of his healed scars, including new fresh ones up top.

“Wha- they’re still there!”

“It’s less than before!” He pulled his sleeve back down. “Like you said, I’ll do it less… and if this training works, it’ll go down gradually. Like you and bread.”

Ayu raised a brow. “So, you’re saying your food is my training?”

“Essentially.” He picked up the uke again. “… Also, I think I got your song down.” 

Ears woke up at the words, and Ayu followed at the attention-grabber. “Really?”

“Yeah, I just repeated the rhythm, so it was easy.”

Ayu hopped in his seat. A grin covered his sunken cheeks. “Lemme’ hear it.”

“I knew you’d say that.” He rolled his eyes, forming his starting finger positions in the meanwhile. He reminded him, “It’s not a masterpiece, just to say.” 

And with a single breath, he began to play. 

“Cold goes by

Through the night.”

A new sound echoed from his voice, a type of singing from him that Ayu never heard prior. The voice itself was still soft, as always, forming patterns of music through is instrument and voice beautifully. 

“Snow is shy,

Hiding in the sky.”

The estrange aspect radiated with the airiness of the tone; how lightly it reached to the high notes and simmered down in gentle grace. The melody tranquilized Ayu to not even pay attention to the lyrics, or the repetitive chords and simplistic progression. 

“As I wait,

day goes away.

Don’t be late,

For I’ll have my day.

I’ll have my day.”

 He allowed the last strum to ring throughout the room, placing it down to his lap all the while.

Words had no meaning for Ayu at the moment, similar to any other time Oliver played. It managed to take all his efforts into forming two words. “It’s pretty.”

“Pretty?” He gawked. “I never thought you’d say something like that.” 

“But you’re talented.”

He corrected him, “I’m not talented. I just have too much time on my hands at night… Besides, with time and effort, any song can be good. Unless you work with modern country.”

“… You make your own songs too, don’t you?”

A nod was received, with slight reluctance at first. 

“Can you sing one?” Ayu asked genuinely.

The musician’s mouth twitched downwards. He turned back to the television. “They’re more personal. And embarrassing.” 

Ayu ate another handful of pasta before it’s warmth goes away. “So, you don’t want to share them?”

“No,” he answered, and placed his ukulele to the side. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I think your songs are nice either way.” He giggled. “How long have you been making songs?”

Oliver pulled down on his sleeves in a shift. “Three years.”

“What are they about?”

“That’s the personal part.”

A man appeared on the screen out of nowhere, wailing in agony as he melted like a candle. 

“Okay Oliver, we’re changing this!”

***

“Oh, my God, I’ve never seen this episode!” Ayu had jumped out of the couch and right up close to the T.V. His gaze fixated not on Oliver anymore but instead the theme song of his favorite hero. 

“What the fuck is this?”

“It’s Crimson!” He cheered. “I haven’t seen them in so long.”

Oliver’s tone laid bewildered at the old animation and loud brass. “I didn’t think it’d be the show from the nineties. Heard that was the trippy one.”

Crimson ran down the city as the saxophone solo drove in to Ayu’s nostalgia. “Trippy or not, it’s kickass.”

A glare set foot from Oliver from then on. “Sure, it is.” The intro continued on with its silhouetted visuals. “How come you watched this?”

“We had it on DVD and my sister would explain everything for me.”

“Your-?” Ayu’s fascination distracted him from his slip-up. Yet, Oliver never finished his question. “What would she explain?”

Ayu answered. “Stuff that happened in the episodes, and why it made Crimson cool.”

“That he’s a hero?”

“That she does what’s right and whatever to help people. No matter how crazy the stunt can be.”

Oliver stayed silent as the opening scene played. Crimson was in his everyday persona, taking all the photos for news coverage as the millionaire of the city. The glamour and pizzazz gloated by the rich fellow shined throughout the screen. “… Why’re they a bitch?”

“They’re not!”

“Well, if you flaunt money and power like that when you can, you know, save people, it’s a bit of a dick move.”

Ayu’s retort was unknown to him. Only knowing ten episodes on repeat was not of help of him in the subject matter. Instead, he grumbled and continued on watching. 

***

Crimson seemed to have gotten himself stuck in the middle of two heists. What was worse was that the two heists were of rival gangs in a competition for the same bank! And with the cops trying to catch the masked crusader yet again, how will the craziness of the night end?

Crimson was running rampant! Bandits were flying everywhere in the city after discovering she was trying to catch them all. She had lost the cops ages ago anyways, so that means that all there is to do left is-

“Vittorino, shut up.”

The immersion clicked out of Ayu’s mind as Oliver’s words blinked him out of the television screen. He had finally been silent for the past few minutes yet this comment blew him away from the scene again. 

However, the second he turned around at Oliver, a taller man was standing beside him. 

“Holy shit-” he jumped at his seat on the floor.

Oliver looked at him. “He can see you now, I’m guessing?”

“Yep.”

He sighed. “Ayu, this is Vittorino: the guy who’s been bothering me for the past two months in which I haven’t mentioned because honestly he doesn’t make that much of an importance.”

Ayu studied him in his surprised state as the name finally started to register. His dark hair being the only recognizable aspect from the past. “You’re the Vittorino Eilwen talked about?”

Oliver tilted his head. “Eilwen talked about him?”

“Of course, she did!” Vittorino tacked on a grin and walked on over to him. He spoke to him and only him. “And you better not tell anything she said about me because its unimportant.” He gritted the last words out. His lanky figure leaning over Ayu as a governing tower. 

“… right.”

“Alright then!” His tone changed completely. “I’m only here to introduce myself.” As well as his demeanor as he bowed in front of Ayu. 

Even Oliver made a face at his action. 

Ending his bow, he made a turn at both of them, waving, “It’s been a pleasure meeting you.”

And he was gone as if nothing happened. 

“…What the fuck was that?”

“Don’t worry, he’s a weird fuck too.” Oliver assured. “He tells people to kill themselves yet he’s a religious saint the other half of the time.”

At first his words startled Ayu. Though majority of Oliver’s fun facts had led him to the same reaction, so might as well skip the moment. “From what Eilwen told me, that makes sense.”

“What did she say?”

“Just rumors… about-”

“Look at what I just told you a minute ago,” Vittorino appeared again. “Don’t!” And he vanished yet again. 

“… Huh.”

Oliver and Ayu looked at each other from the sudden interaction. The bewilderment of both seen in each of their expressions… Oliver cracked up first, following Ayu.

Oliver wheezed, “Okay that was definitely a first from him.” 

“It wasn’t what I thought he’d be like!”

They both laughed like the unamusing children they were.

“Wait, when did he tie up the cops?” Oliver asked Ayu as the ending of the episode played before them. 

Ayu kept his eyes glue to the screen. “We probably missed it while talking to Vittorino.”

“Why is Crimson an actual criminal?”

“Because the police sucks, and the city’s law thing in general.”

“… Okay, fair enough.”

The ending zoom-in starred the poor police officers, grumpy yet abandoned upside-down in ropes. Because Crimson had forgotten to actually free them! What a laugh! 

Ayu chuckled at the final joke but Oliver to no avail. 

The credits began to play in a slower jazz rhythm, with a female singer singing her smooth soul out.

“Oh what? This actually sounds nice,” Oliver commented. He checked the clock behind the couch. “Oh… my mom’s about to come back soon.”

Hearing the news, Ayu turned off what was playing. “So, you want me to go?”

“Are you fine with it…?”

Ayu told him. “Yeah, that blanket you gave me is gonna make tonight way better.” He got up, grabbed his sketchbook, and already walked up to the door. 

“… Right. Keep on writing. I like it.”

He smiled at his opinion. It isn’t the wolf this time. “Will do.” He opened the door and took his leave. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye…”

Slam.

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Crimson Capture | November 1st | A Mother | A Demon | A Child | The Wolf | Bloody Fingers | A Monochrome World | The Pocketwatch | Next >>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 13 #swearing warning #freezing warning? #cannibal references #press x to self doubt #ghost stuff #screw cops #bst ayu #bst annette #bst oliver #bst vittorino #oh yeah sorry this is late #animal crossing erases time

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | Red Eye

Ohboythisisthemoment-

Remember that this is only a first draft and only has little edits, but enjoy! Comments and reception are appreciated! 

-

A kid with a slouched back, head down, and a hood over his head was sketchy enough, but passing by the cashiers with food and water was too questionable for Oliver to ignore.  

He grabbed the thief by the arm. The thief’s arm was hollow in Oliver’s hands, too thin to imagine carrying a large jug of water. 

“What are you doing?” What am I even doing? 

The thief’s mouth was shut. His hood continued to cover over his face, but it slowly began to slip. 

As he faced directly to Oliver’s direction, his hood fell off completely. His complexion was disturbingly white, his cheeks sunken down and his lips chapped to an extreme. His long black hair covered up his eyes and went down to his lower neck, though Oliver could see them faintly up close. His eyes revealed exhaustion, eye bags burrowing down to a dark shadow. However, what caught Oliver’s sight wasn’t his left eye, stricken with a soft ocean blue, but his right, with a pupil shaped like a sun or star and his iris shining with a deep red. 

The red-eyed boy stared at Oliver with eyes wide, and lips turned down low to an expression of fear. 

Oliver could only mutter then, “What the…” 

The boy shifted his head, left and right until a stranger bumped into him from behind. 

“Oh sorry,” the man apologized. But the boy in the matter of a second dropped what he held, the noise of the water grabbed the attention of those around them. 

Oliver, in confusion, studied the boy. 

Red-eye shook his head multiple-times, not replying to the man behind them. He got out of Oliver’s grasp, to Oliver’s surprise, and grabbed him by the arm instead. 

“Wait- what are you-”

“I’m sorry,” was all the boy had gasped, with a raspy, dry voice. He then ran, with Oliver behind, out of the store. 

Oliver’s own bag, flew from the gust of wind the boy made from running. Oliver could barely hold his grasp on the bag without it breaking. His legs could barely keep up while they burned at the speed. 

“Wait- hold on- stop!” Oliver puffed. His steps stuttered left and right, barely keeping himself up. “Can you stop,” he yelled. 

Red-eye refused to slow down the pace and ran faster. Oliver bare stomach punch himself as his energy drained. He began choking up from no-rest. “Come on, stop,” he huffed. 

It took ages, but Red-eye slowed his pace continuously until finally stopping. He turned around, looking back at Oliver. His red eye turned to a dull grey, Oliver noticed. He looked down at his clasped hand, and raised his head back up to Oliver. “I…” His expression softened, scrunching up slightly as he let go of Oliver’s arm. “I’m sorry… I wasn’t thinking that much over there.”

Oliver pulled his arm back to himself instantly, breathing incessantly. Luckily, it wasn’t his left arm, but the boy’s grip was tight enough to leave a bruise. He rubbed it gently to ease the pain. “… What the heck was that for?”

The boy fidgeted his fingers against each other. “I really am sorry,” his voice cracked. “It was just-”

He froze. 

“It was just what?”

The boy’s hand slapped against his head as he stepped aback. “Fuck…” he gasped. His body collapsed down. He swore under his breath as his hands shuffled around his head and hair. 

Wait, Oliver crouched down to him, “Are you alright?” Dumb question. “What’s wrong?” His hands tempted to hold him on the shoulders though his mind hesitated the idea. 

The boy continued muttering broke to sweats. His breathing heightened in the matter of seconds. “Uhm, calm down.” Oliver’s attempts to help were lackluster. “Just tell me what the hell is going on. Jesus,” he muttered to himself. 

“No, no, no, no…” The boy repeated to himself. He started tugging onto his hair. 

“Just breathe…” Oliver whispered, turning around to see if any crowds were noticing. Nobody batted an eye on the two. “Just- just breathe.” Christ, help me. 

It took a minute, but his breathing at least slowed. He looked up towards Oliver. Oliver noted that he was still shaking, and he still had his fearful expression. “… Can you help me go home. I- I can explain after. Please.” 

Oliver eyed him skeptically. He can’t be seen by others, can’t he? “Why did you bring me here in the first place?”

“I said I’ll explain there,” he repeated breathless. 

Maybe I can get something out of him… Oliver debated to himself, however the chances weighed too much to pass up. “Alright. Let’s go then.”

At first, Oliver had to help hold him up by his shoulders, as the boy stumbled along his steps. But, soon after they began walking down the streets, the boy had calmed down. 

Oliver’s shoulder was lifted from the boy’s light weight letting go. As they walked separately, the boy shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the sidewalk dully. Their stances stayed as such for few minutes, Oliver followed the boy silently. 

The air filled with smoke while fogged rolled around. Buildings stood tall all over with stains on the wall. Graffiti was hefted everywhere and washed out from rain days ago. The crowds gathered as ever, only more shadowed folk rummaged around the sidewalks with suspicious atmospheres looming around them. However, the traffic continued to ring throughout, reminding Oliver it was the still Obodo. 

“Um…” The boy stuttered. “Again, sorry for that entire… thing,” he didn’t turn to view Oliver. “I really mean it with the food too. I was just… starving, basically. And I didn’t have any money.”

“Then why didn’t you just ask your parents or something?” 

The boy slowed for a moment. But then he rushed back to his normal pace. “I’ll explain once we get to where I at least sleep. Luckily, it’s not that far.” His head faced downwards as he spoke.

“Ah, okay…” Oliver understood from his body language. 

The awkward air intensified. 

And the walk ended up being forty-five minutes long. 

“You said it was a short walk,” Oliver complained. His eyes had blurred from the distance. 

The boy scoffed. “It’s not that long of a walk.” He turned to an alley. Oliver followed in reluctance. Entering the location, he found himself in a clutter of items. From blankets to clusters of paper and borderline junk. 

The boy walked into the entrance nonchalantly, and slumped down to a seat with a sigh. With a deep breath, he turned to Oliver and told him, “This is the place. Isn’t the most comfortable but…,” he searched around, “you can sit down here at least.”

Oh God… 

Oliver sat down with disgust ridden in his face. The odor of the alley made him pucker from how strong both were. His appetite died down from the matter of days. 

“You’ll get used to it,” was all the boy said. He crawled out from his spot and clawed through a pile with his small hands. He grabbed what looked to be a walkie-talkie and played static. 

Pressing a button, from what Oliver could barely view, “Hey Annette. You there?”

Oliver questioned his own life actions by then.

Why the hell am I here again?... Fuck. Is this what Vittorino was talking about? How is this beneficial or whatever for me?... Dear God, this better be done quick.  

The walkie-talkie continued to hiss static until a reply finally reached through. “Sorry, my baba was in the room.” It was a girl’s voice, was all Oliver could tell.

“You know that doesn’t matter.” Oliver picked up the conversation. Some girlfriend of something? Wait- no that wouldn’t make any sense considering his situation. 

“Well anyways, something wrong? You don’t seem to be having a reading.”

“I did, just wasn’t here when it happened,” he rushed the words. “But other than that, I think I found a new member.”

Wait what?

“Wait what,” the girl squawked.  “What do you mean a new member?”

“Shh, he’s right behind me,” Being quiet isn’t gonna help at all, “He can actually see me without me doing anything,” the boy whispered. Oliver rolled his eyes. 

So, I guess he’s more like Vittorino…? 

“Holy moly. This is actually great!”

“Are you sure about that?” He had a dead tone to his voice while saying the words. 

“Yes, Ayu. It’s nice to have more help.” The girl’s tone lowered. “And if you took that as an insult to yourself, I apologize with no offence.”

…? I mean, I guess I got his name now. 

Ayu sighed. “None taken. But can you come over right now? You can at least introduce yourself.” 

“Oh! Yeah, I can be there real quick. Better than doing homework.” Sounds of items clashing against each other blasted out from the walkie-talkie. 

“Just bring the work here.”

“You know whenever I bring my homework over there, it gets screwed up!”

“That was only one time.” They’re about to argue, aren’t they? 

“That was my first major essay for English,” she yelled over the walkie-talkie.

“Who the fuck cares about English?”

“I DO.” 

Ayu groaned. “Look, I have to talk to the guy so just get here quick.”

“Ha, I already am. See ya.” The walkie-talkie went back to static.  Ayu chucked it back into the junk pile. 

Better time than ever. “So,” Oliver started. Ayu turned back to him. “Can you explain to me what’s going on?”

“Right,” Ayu nodded. “How do I start this…”

Ayu blinked while staring in the air before saying anything. “You… know how I kinda panicked down there?”

“Yeah,” Oliver answered. 

“That was because I have this thing where no one could see me or really know that I exist… at least unless I touched them or they bump into me. Something like that.” Ayu scratched his head with his awkward tone of voice. 

“So… kinda like the two,” Oliver muttered.

“Sorry, what?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Oliver attempted to excuse himself. 

Ayu shrugged while Oliver gave a mental sigh, and the boy continued. “Only certain people can see me immediately. I know two people so far: the chick that’s coming right now, and you from what I can tell.”

Oliver hummed in response. Seems a lot more vulnerable than Vittorino and Zach.

“Since stuff happened a while ago, I live… here now… by myself, but the good thing is that I can’t starve… or dehydrate myself to death, that stuff. I just feel the pain.”

“Oh…” 

“Pretty much, I haven’t eaten in the past couple of days, and I was just tempted enough to do it.” Ayu explained, though he jumped up after saying. “Not that I didn’t feel bad or anything- I just couldn’t stand the hunger like a few years back-”

“No, no, I get it,” Oliver hesitantly patted Ayu’s shoulder. Ayu’s face twisted in reaction. “You just needed it, not in technicality but mentally.” 

“Er,” Ayu blinked, “Yeah… But that’s pretty much the start of this thing.” 

“What do you mean…?” 

Ayu choked up. Stammering, “Well- okay this’ll sound really crazy to someone.”

“Just say it,” Oliver ordered.

The boy took a breath. “Okay… So, me and Annette, maybe other people we haven’t met, have super powers pretty much, to fight with.”

“Pardon?” 

“Yeah, I know. It’s weird.” Ayu pointed at himself, “I have super strength and speed, and this weird thing that I think’s called clairvoyance? But like a specific one.”

Oliver put two and two together. “That’s why you could carry the jug,” his face then scorched with an unpleasant memory, “and make me almost throw up.”

Ayu reluctantly nodded and continued. “The only people who can have abilities like that are people who can see me. But they develop overtime so you don’t have to worry about that yet.”

“Mhm…” This is gonna be a bother, isn’t it? 

“The easiest way we can tell that’s someone’s got powers, other than seeing me, is actually from a mark that pops up in their body. Like this,” Ayu points at his right eye, “Looks like a black sun or something. It looks kinda cool on the surface but it’s really just weird.” 

“… I don’t have one, though.” 

“Don’t worry about that, if you are one of us it’ll pop up sooner or later.” 

Ayu curled up into his hoodie from the winds. 

Oliver’s curiosity peaked. “Do you guys do anything with your powers or something?”

Ayu bit his cheek, shying away from facing Oliver. “Well, we do. But it’s probably the shittiest part of this…” He tucked in his hood tighter. His eyes flickered with a dull shine. “You know how there’s been those area death things happening? And how they say that they died for no reason?”

Oliver tensed, flashes of the earlier news came back to his mind. “Yeah…?”

“Did you ever see the corpses in a bloody mess or something like that?”

Oliver licked over his bloody lip. “Yeah. I’ve seen those before actually.”

“This’ll probably sound kinda crazy, but… blame monsters.”

“Monsters?” Oliver questioned. 

“Yup. Nobody aside from us can see them, and nobody except us can see what they do or fight back.” Ayu looked down to the ground. “My clairvoyance or whatever can tell me when they appear sometimes, and where they’re at.”

Oliver gulped. “Then, how come deaths are still coming around?”

“That’s the real shitty part of this,” Ayu answered. “My readings suck, because whenever they happen, I have a headache and other stuff that hurts enough to where I can barely move; And most of the time my readings end up being too late or won’t happen at all so everyone still dies.” 

“Ah…” That’s why he was like that before. 

“Usually whenever readings happen, I have to get Annette for her to get rid of the monsters. But either way we never really save anybody…” Ayu stared at his boney hands solemnly, but then shrugged. “Maybe you can help but I don’t think that could ever happen with how things are going so far. Sorry.” 

Definitely more vulnerable. “It’s alright,” Oliver replied. 

The air went silent between the two. Oliver only heard street commotions as nobody spoke. He looked towards Ayu, who faced away from him. Will I get anything from him though, Vittorino? 

The silence broke with a stomach growling. Ayu blinked, then groaned. He pulled his head back to the wall. “Fuck, I dropped the bread.” He tousled through his hair, his face dropping to clear annoyance. Though, he shook his head as he questioned, “Oh yeah, why were you at the store? It didn’t look like you were with your mom or dad.” 

Oliver clenched his bag and put it in front of him. He lodged down and ignored the ointment inside. “Oh, I went to buy some candy since I felt like it.” He took out the sour candies he actually bought as evidence. 

Ayu stared at the bag. Oliver’s head tilted as Ayu’s lip poked out with drool. “Something up,” Oliver asked wearily. 

“Sorry. I haven’t had those things in years.” His eyes shined with greed.

Oliver made a soft, self-conscious chuckle at the boy’s reaction. “You can have it if you want-”

The bag was ripped out of Oliver’s hands before he could make another sound. He jumped at the action, and found Ayu tearing the bag open like an animal. 

The boy began chomping on the small sweets the second he was able to open it. “Tank-yu,” Ayu mumbled with candies stuffed in his mouth. 

“It’s… nothing.” 

“Oh yeah,” Ayu munched, “I didn’t introduce myself, didn’t I? I’m Ayu.” 

“I already heard from you talking over there.” Oliver nodded towards the messy pile. “But my name’s Oliver. Oliver Holguin. Your name’s kinda unique.”

Ayu replies, “Yeah, everybody thought it was weird back at foster care.” 

“You went to foster care too?”

Ayu paused at the moment, eyes widening. “Shit.” He blinked. “Yeah, I was, but that was a while ago til I was six or something.”

How did he get here? Ayu’s fickle movements while answering the question made him wonder. Though, it was at least understandable for why no parents were present. “Wait, if you got off when you were six, how old are you now?”

Ayu nommed on another candy-bite. “I’m about to turn thirteen in a few months.”

Oliver bolted up from his grounded seat. “You’re twelve? You look like my age.”

Ayu shrugged, “Bad habits get to ya. How old are you, then?”

“I’m just ten,” Oliver answered. “But I’m turning eleven next week.” 

Ayu chuckled. “You’re short as hell for you age then if you’re shorter than me.” 

Oliver leaned towards his knees, muttering to him. “It’s probably a genetic thing-”

“Ayu, where’s the new guy?” A girl yelled as she ran towards the alley. She was panting and standing only from holding on to the wall corner, though her tall figure beamed against the outside light. Her chocolate hair flowed through the winds as she zoomed across the space to Oliver. “You must be him,” she smiled. Her crouched down body still made Oliver tense. 

“Uh, hi?” Oliver stood up himself for her comfort. Though, she was still a good whole foot taller than him. 

“His name’s Oliver,” Ayu told her. 

“How did you even find him?” The girl turned to Ayu, her excitement displaying clearly with her tone. 

“I was trying to get food but he caught me.”

She gawked. “You went to steal food again?”

Ayu rolled his eyes, “I didn’t expect this to happen. I figured that you wouldn’t have time to come back just to get me food.” 

Oliver stood in the middle of their bickering. His mind wandered off to thoughts are they both complained. How many times has this guy actually stole food?... Wait, am I gonna have to do stuff in this thing?  

The girl sighed as she and Ayu stopped discussing. She presented herself to Oliver. “Sorry about that. I’m Annette, co-founder of-,” she turned to Ayu, “did we ever make an official name?” 

Ayu shook his head, eyes deadpanned. 

“Oh, well we don’t have an official name right now but for now it’s the Black Sun-… Gang- thing…!”

Ayu face-palmed. “Oh, my god- Annette, we don’t need a name,” he spat. 

“It’s okay. Brand names are selling points, my friend,” she purred at him. She then turned back to Oliver. “We can get you on the ropes of things quick, then you can decide if you want to join or not.” 

Oliver eyed her. “Am I not gonna have a choice in trying it out at all?” 

“Please. We need help more than anything. Plus,” she gestured at Ayu, “he’s actually pretty intuitive. He can help you with your abilities when you get them.”

“Just because I guessed about your powers doesn’t mean I know everything about this stuff.” Ayu’s arms crossed. 

“Intuitive is when you can figure things out quickly Ayu,” she brushed him off. “But Oliver, just hang out with us for a bit. You already heard about the Katzmann thing from earlier didn’t you.” 

Oliver tugged the blood from his lip. 

“Wait, what do you mean by Katzmann thing,” Ayu asked. 

“Oh right, I didn’t talk with you about it.”  Annette drooped. “There was a kid who died today at her own house. People think it’s an area death but you weren’t even able to catch it, weren’t you?”

He looked down with his hair covering his face. “No, I didn’t…”

Would these guys really be good for clues? Would they ever come at me?

“Well, we’ll probably figure it out sooner or later.”

“Or never,” Ayu grumbled. 

“Uh,” Oliver spoke between the two. “I’m pretty sure I’m gonna have to go soon. My mom’ll probably worry if I’m out for too long because of these ‘area deaths’.” 

Annette nodded. “Fair enough, but before you go, do you have a phone?”

***

“I can’t believe I got a number from a random chick I just met.” 

Oliver walked through the wind gusts, his eyes fixated on the number on his flip-phone. 

“How did meeting your new friends go?” Vittorino emerged out of thin air yet again. 

Oliver didn’t bat his eyes away from the contact. “They’re fine, but I’m not planning on getting close.” 

Vittorino went in front of him. “You sure about that? They look like nice ones.” Another cheeky grin. 

“Almost everyone I meet is nice to some extent,” Oliver replied, “but regardless, they’ll have to deal with me out of anybody. That’s impossible shit right there.”

Vittorino chuckled. “Let me ask this again. Are you sure about that?” 

“Yes. I’m sure.” Oliver walked past him towards his home, and slammed the building door on Vittorino’s face as he went inside. 

Oliver sighed as he trudged up the stairs. “This better be worth it…”

He entered his home to continue the day. 

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Next>>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 3 #not sure what warnings to put #theft? #death mention? #oh yeah #swearing warning #bst ayu #bst oliver #bst annette #bst vittorino

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | Sleepover

here we are! the last chapter of part ii and the end of the first half of bst! it’s been a blast posting so far, i hope you know, and there’s only more to come after this. i’ll be posting the afternote tomorrow. 

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

-

“Vittorino, are you there…?”

In the corner appeared a shadow as Oliver welled himself inside his blanket. “Obviously. I’m already here nowadays, aren’t I?”

Glistens of a first snow began falling on the late December night. Right by the window were speckles of white that he ignored through the covers. He only tightened his own covers over himself. “Please talk to me.” 

Vittorino rolled his head back. “Did you have a nightmare again?”

“No,” Oliver answered, “I’m just thinking about it again.”

“Is it too dark?” 

“Yeah.”

He stepped on over to the door, opening it without the shiver of a creak. “Do you want to go outside?”

Oliver stammered, “No, I don’t want Mom to wake up and find me gone.” 

“She won’t,” Vittorino assured. “I exist if you don’t remember.” 

“I’m aware but,” the staggering depth of his trouble poked him at every nudge of movement. “I’ve already left her enough as is, I feel like.” 

With a shake of the head, Vittorino explained, “Oliver, you haven’t seen anyone and have been staying inside talking to me throughout your entire break, and you’ve been freaking out the entire time.” He flicked Oliver’s tired nose. “You gotta go out once in a while. Talk to Ayu or something, you haven’t seen him for a month by now.”

“He’ll be upset that I haven’t seen him for that long and I don’t want to deal with that.” 

“And you stopped seeing him because you felt bad, yeah, yeah.” Vittorino groaned over the conversation. “But still, this isn’t the smartest thing for you to do.”

“Can’t I do how I feel?”

“How you’re feeling is contradictory every time.”  He yanked up Oliver’s covers as he curled up from reaction. “You need some air before you start panicking again.” 

Oliver’s body itched for warmth again, but still listened to Vittorino’s reasoning, albeit upset. He asked, “Is the patio good enough for you?”

“It’ll probably be enough to calm you down.”

He scrambled silently off his bed, waddling down and onto the hallway. 

Passing through pictures he wished to tear down, Vittorino followed from behind. Creaks tiptoed behind them through the short venture but Oliver ignored them. 

Entering the living room, there was a corner blocked by a small curtain next to the television. Oliver grabbed a tall seat from the side, placing it in front of the corner as he pulled back the curtains. A clear night sky shined against the patio door with glitters of the snow drifting down to the ground. 

He opened the heavy door, mental chills burrowing him from the weight but a natural wind meeting him. The cold was not a bother then, and he entered into the outside land of his house, greeting the cold with his own shivering heart. It rather heated him up. He placed the chair to the patio, decorated with some immortal –fake– greens that accessorized from the falling white, as he watched the glowing city from afar. 

Street lights illuminated down below, shining against the then damp and sticking snow. Store lights also brightened the distance ahead along with cars taking last minute trips to the bar or back home once again. Smoke still arose through it all but it was a scent, not one that reeked of old metals and bodies. Well, perhaps it was, but in the open air at least. 

Oliver sat on the chair with his back slouching over, winds brushing against his hair and pajamas. His attention wavered with his thoughts that formed almost nothing. Though the silent liveliness of the city eased him enough for the time being. 

“It’s freezing out there,” Vittorino commented from the kitchen. “Are you that immune to things with eating?” 

Oliver shrugged. “Maybe, but that isn’t the best thing.” He turned back around to find Vittorino turning on the sink and stove. “What are you doing?”

Vittorino filled up a pot. “Making hot cocoa or whatever you guys call it. It’s nice, right?” 

Confused, Oliver nodded. “I guess but how do you know all that?” 

“I’ve been learning,” he replied, “that, and watching young people make two minute meals and snacks out of laziness also helps.” 

He stared at the experimentation, but shrugged it off from no poisoning to affect him. 

Once the beverages finished boiling, Vittorino carried two cups out and handed one to Oliver. The heat burned up his cool hands, trickling and waking up every sleeping fiber in his arms. Steam flowed above his face as he stared at the cup, it’s chocolate defining itself with its lovely brown. 

“Are you better now?” Vittorino sat by the corner of the patio, shaking in the corner of Oliver’s eyes but without a worry of the cold. 

“I guess but…” He sipped the drink already, stabbing his tongue through the freshness. And he sighed from barely any reaction from a pain or a taste. “I’ll never like this.”

Vittorino glared against the lights at him. “If you’re not talking about the cocoa, be specific.”

“You know what I mean,” Oliver scoffed. “Sure, I haven’t really been starving anymore, but why does it turn out like this?”

“Like what,” he asked.

“Like,” gripping his cup, he explained, “now that I’m eating, after all the pain and torture all this shit brought, everything feels fine.”

“Well, yeah. You’re eating for once.” 

“That’s the problem: I shouldn’t be.” He chugged the searing liquid down without recoil. “And instead of having any sort of downfall to this, I– this is happening!” He gestured at the empty cup and snow aggressively. 

“Oh, your new stuff.” Vittorino sat back in his arms and apartment wall. “We all figured you’d get some immunities at some point with it.”

Setting down the cup, Oliver rolled his eyes. “So, you guys figured that after being ‘okay’ with cannibalism, I wouldn’t be cold or burn myself. Or I wouldn’t feel pain and heal from almost everything in a few minutes and–”

“Yeah, you’ve always been able to do that apparently, it’s just that you never ate well enough to figure it out.” He smirked at him. 

In the moment, Oliver stepped out of the chair, locking his arms against the patio handrail. Vittorino’s comment pierced him somewhere, to guess the least. He said, “Regardless of that, I think it’s just gotten worse.” 

Vittorino’s mouth held shut. 

“We’re here right now because of why I’m even eating.” His eyes lowered, snow dusting on his healing arms. “It’ll never be right like this.” 

“… Do you want to go back?”

“No,” he answered as an instinct. “I wanna stay here a little longer.”

Vittorino lagged in response. “Alright. But keep the light on once we get back.”

Oliver nodded while the speckles in his face melted without a flinch. 

***

A daily walk consisted of few things: go somewhere new, parks are forbidden, and staying is deemed confinement. The rules set Oliver to his mild, albeit anxious, comfort as he ventured on to landscapes or tourist traps he never bothered to visit prior. 

Trips remained unknown for Oliver, including the one of that very day. Snow managed to pile up throughout the hours leaving a white cityscape in Obodo. Aside from some tourists, streets were abandoned from the clumped sidewalks and ice; stores locked themselves in, leaving dark but covered up spaces left and right. Oliver avoided completely dead streets, but played with the piles around him. 

Every other minute, a new ball of snow gathered in his hands in attempt to freeze them. Oliver picked up a new piece, same chills creeping as before. Though, the more it melted into freezing water, the more his hands remained the same. 

He sighed at every failure, but went on. 

Another gust of the mild storm breezed through Oliver’s coat. No shiver came out of him aside from the distraction of his coat flying. However, at the sight of those around him, they all wreathed into their own jackets. His ears twitched at their wincing and laughing at their adventures, as typical tourists did. 

It’s gotta be cold, right? He tucked his jacket together, huffing his breath to a white mist. Perhaps the icicles from headings above could fall upon him to feel some kind of bother. The fact the that ice formed that sharply truly showed the temperature however. And the groups laughing at the weather began to bother him. 

He glared at the ones that shivered. They shouldn’t even be outside. They’ll freeze to death. He thought. 

But then, the image of a boy in a blanket appeared in his mind, and he himself froze in his mental stead. 

“Fuck,” he yelped, as he jumped into a run. He dashed at the opposite end of the road and onto the way of the alley. “I’m actually an idiot,” he huffed. His own legs swifted faster than he processed his direction. Yet, despite the lack of focus, his steps avoided all the ice surrounding him, and dodged the obstacles with ease. Such a nature seemed normal for him, but not at his speeds. Not that he cared at the moment. 

Swears puffed out of his breath during his snow-filled run at every second. But as soon as he started, the soon he found the boy once again. Trapped in a worn, wet blanket, tugging as tightly as he could. 

He shook, every movement from his turning head and freezing eyes shook. His breath frosted once it met the air as he whimpered in his paler skin, “Help.”

“Shit!” Oliver run to him, tossing up his cardigan over. “Ayu, I’m so sorry– Ah,” his emergency mode fluctuated in panic. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he gasped. “I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“But I could’ve.” Wrapping the cardigan snuggly around him, he grabbed him up. “I’m taking you to my house. Right now. You need to get warmed up.” 

“But you don’t have to–”

“Ayu.” He stated, “I do.” And he dragged him along by the hand, to Ayu’s reluctance. 

***

The tub welled-up steam across the hallway. A hot bath was inevitable after at least some time of warming up. Though, while Ayu’s relaxation period occurred, Oliver sat beside the bathroom door, head down and leaning back. 

“I can’t believe I didn’t think about you freezing again,” Oliver repeated. 

Rolling around in the bath, Ayu loafed on the side while replying to him. “Don’t worry, it happens every year.” He sneezed from the contrast of heat on his skin. He continued to sink into the warm water. “Still, this is great.” As selfish as that might be, he thought.

He played around in the water for some time. Splashes still seemed entertaining from when he was little. Oliver stayed quiet, but the bath led Ayu to not mind at the slightest. If only bubbles were in his sight, then he would have formed another army in his mind against darkness-loving enemies. An entire battle would commence for his own fun. 

“Haven’t you ever thought of going to Annette’s house or something when it’s too cold,” Oliver asked. His body continuously tensed as Ayu made his enjoyment. 

Yet, Ayu never thought much of the question. “Not really. She didn’t want her dads to find out about me if I was a klutz, and she didn’t wanna keep me in her closet all night. So, she just tried giving me as much as she could with whatever time she had.” 

Oliver looked back into his room with a spacious bed left unattended. “You haven’t been in any rooms during the winter, huh?” 

Balancing his hand on the water, he replied, “Yeah. And most stores and stuff are closed during storms anyways.” 

Oliver gripped himself. The mixture of guilt and sympathy brought his mouth to offer, “Why don’t you sleep here tonight?”

“What?”

He walked on over to the entrance of his room while bare of his cardigan. The window packed itself in white form the outside. “It’s not gonna stop snowing anytime soon, and tonight’s gonna get worse.”

“It won’t be as bad as two years ago,” Ayu commented in shivering memories.

Oliver’s memory of that blizzard never correlated. “Well, it’ll still be bad. And I’ll let you in for a couple nights if you need it, I guess.”

“Oh,” he paused his water games, “That sounds nice.” 

“It’s supposed to be.” 

But with a certain reminder, Ayu fumbled with his words. “Wait, what about your mom?”

Though, Oliver scoffed at the question. “Ayu,” he started with a grin, “if Vittorino can wander around this place without my mom noticing, you probably can too.”

“… Where would I be sleeping?”

Oliver turned back around to his own bed and shrugged. “We’ll shared one. My bed’s big enough.” He stepped back into the edge of the bathroom door. “We can do whatever before tonight, but how do you think of it?”

The offer shined in a grand presence for Ayu’s mind. The warmness of the waters also dipped itself into the offer in a convincing fashion. With the two and many other reasons looming over himself, he sighed in relief. “I’ll go with it.”

“Well, that’s great.” Stretching up, Oliver hid his internal glee, only known for a single reason. “I’ve been needing some interaction that isn’t from psychos.” He went on over to the kitchen and began the food for the day. 

“This is the first time I’ve slept over with anybody before…”

“Same here,” Oliver replied. The boxes in the cabinets held all kinds of labels he pictured for a meal. However, he figured sickness could arrive at any moment, and reached up the chicken broth at the corner with the tip of his toes. 

“Do you know what to do for it?”

He said back, “No idea. Just stuff from movies.”

Ayu chuckled. “That’s better than me.”

The broth poured into a pot as Oliver turned on the stove. “So, how long are you thinking of staying in the tub?”

Ignoring the mild pruning, Ayu dipped his hands in the warm waters again. “A little longer. It’s cozy.”

“Hopefully you don’t pass out in there,” Oliver joked. “One time, I passed out in the shower because of how hungry I was! …”

They both realized and remembered the context of the sentence, shying away from the casual cheeriness of the talk. 

“I… woke up with wet hair still,” he tried to continue. His mind cringed at how normal he had put it again.

“Well… You’re… uh–”

“Just don’t answer that.”

“Gotcha.” 

***

The wistful snowstorm continued to blow against the uncovered windows in the living room, filling up the balcony as only a white lump.

The broth and noodles Oliver made melted into Ayu’s mouth while warmed up by a towel for his hair.

Oliver sat beside him on the stools. The other’s eating bringing him to a ponder of having a snack, despite how ugly that would appear. However, there was still a beckoning silence that bothered him. After so long of disconnection, words tempted him to hear more. “So, how’s the last month been,” he asked, ignoring his own disappearance for the time. 

“Not much, like usual,” he said. “I’ve been practicing more poetry like you said, but the snow’s been covering my journal.” 

“Still sorry.”

“Still don’t have to worry about that.”

A pout sprouted from Oliver’s cheeks. “Fine. But would that mean that your sketchbook’s ruined now?” 

He shook his head while sipping broth. “It’s a special one Annette got me for my birthday. It’s waterproof. Any other stuff I have over there might be dead though.”

Lowering eyes of guilt, Oliver dawdled his fingers on the table, fresh with no scars. “Do you want to go get them right now? Or after you eat?”

He answered, “I don’t think we’d be able to dig through the snow piles right now.”

“Well… I’m sturdy,” Oliver argued.

“I am too, but it’s cold.”

“Not for me.” An impressed reaction was guaranteed by that point.

Ayu smiled. “I don’t think you’d want to leave a dumbass alone in your apartment.”

“You’re not that dumb,” he scoffed. “But I wouldn’t want to just leave you alone in general again.” 

“I’m used to it.”

“And that’s not a good thing.” Oliver walked over to the office room, snatching up papers and returning to the table. “You can still write or draw here if you want.”

The paper stared back at Ayu with its blank slots. He gulped and pulled back his soup from the white pages. “I’ll… think about it.”

Oliver curved his face. “Why think?”

He replied, “I’ve been wanting to hang out with you for a while. It’d be distracting.”

“Oh…” He pulled back his hair in embarrassment. “Then, I guess you wouldn’t want me playing music?”

Ayu shook his head. “That’s fine. I like hearing you,” he rasped. 

The words fluttered in Oliver’s ears but its dryness was the only distraction. He scrambled to give him a cup of water in response. “You need to hydrate more.” He mumbled, “and I should check for fever…”

The concern bored Ayu, though he sipped on the dull –albeit refreshing– water while Oliver ran off to the bathroom cabinets. “So, how’ve you been doing?”

“Shitty, as usual,” Oliver responded as he tiptoed his grasp of the thermometer. Though, he reluctantly gave up soon after in sigh. What am I kidding? “This time it’s been different though.”

Ayu himself sighed from the normality. “Eating I’m guessing?”

He replied, “They’re putting me on diet.” 

“Is it helping?”

“… Yeah. A lot.” Oliver brushed aside his own looks from the mirror. “I’ve been able to practice magic a little easier.”

Curiosity brushed Ayu’s ears. “What kind of stuff are you doing?”

He came back to him in the conversation. “Well, Alice told me I had like two powers from my dad, but she’s only teaching me one right now that sucks.” 

The number and basis rang in Ayu’s mind. However, the details of his questions scratched themselves out as well. “What are they?”

Oliver shrugged in the topic, answering, “The cool one’s shapeshifting.”

In awe, Ayu slammed his drink down. “So, does that mean you can turn into whatever?”

“Didn’t ask for details, but I guess that’s the definition. It’s the harder one to learn though.” 

The excitement died down from Oliver’s answer, though more possibilities still remained. “Then what’s the other one?”

“… Invisibility.” 

“What? That’s cool too.” 

Oliver retorted, “Not when all you know how to do is make your scars disappear.” 

Ayu’s face flattened in reaction of the reminder. “Wouldn’t you want to forget about it?” 

“Well– yeah. But not like this.”

Ayu sighed. “I’ll… leave you on that for now.” 

“Thanks.” Oliver bit his lip, thinking of a disruption of any silence. “What do you wanna do after you eat?”

“Dunno…” Ayu nommed on another noodle. “Maybe we can play a game.” 

A twitch touched Oliver’s spine in memory of the pains from the playground. He laughed gently in defense, “I’m not the biggest fan of games, really.”

“It doesn’t have to be any hard games.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” he rolled his eyes in a cheeky grin, “What are you thinking then?”

They played whatever Ayu came up with his imagination, some with names only Oliver recalled. From many losses to many close-to victories, Ayu enjoyed himself throughout their time. Though, Oliver pinpointed all of the necessary moves to win for all of the simple games yet again. Despite the easy conditions however, he stayed down for the other, and for him to have some joyous moments of victory. 

With no other ideas in mind afterwards, special films on television became the next best option in Ayu’s interest. During the comedies, they both conversed and poked fun –though Ayu’s fun being less evaluative– as Oliver studied tunes for it all. A calming afternoon eased them both.

***

“… Why did he have to die?”

“’Cause that’s what the plot said.”

“But they didn’t need to do that!” Ayu slammed his pillow. “I liked him… whatever his name was.” 

Oliver closed his book for school and shrugged. “They kill people off to move the story along. Motivate some characters, make character growth, whatever. Maybe make a statement, who knows.” He peeked through the final page of his book for once, cheating to figure out the ending only for a lame, vague idea.

He glared back at him. “That’s shitty growth.” With a glumming face, he grabbed the remote and switched channels.

“Hey, can you check the time?”

“Uh, I think.” A click of the remote was tricky for determining what would occur. However, the luck Ayu gained from opening the menu screen was relieving enough. And luckily, he read numbers and told the time on the screen.

In an instant, Oliver set his book down. “Goddamn it, I need a watch–”

Ayu watched him as he tossed all of the blankets and pillows thrown around during their fun away where they once were. The messy but neat equilibrium of the folds and stacks baffled him, but he had to ask, “Why’re you doing this.”

The obviousness threw Oliver’s tone off. “My mom’s coming in like two minutes at this point and this mess is something I can’t explain when home alone.” 

An immediate thought that appeared in Ayu’s head was Alice however he already knew to cut that short. “Do you want me to help?”

“No, I can get this done pretty quick. And, you probably don’t know what to do, huh?” 

Ayu nodded. 

Thinking it over, Oliver reminded himself of a specific trait. “No one can see you right?” Another nod. “You can stick here then. Just don’t try and mess around.” 

A crooked mouth laid on Ayu’s face, but he remained tugged on his pillow and sat beside Oliver’s cleaning. Thoughts loomed over him again however, and it begged him to ask, “Are you sure you don’t want me to do something?”

He hummed. “Nah, you probably need to rest out of anything.”

“Right…” Despite the disappointment in both the activity and himself, his mind zoned himself out of the situation for some time. Blank splotches of thoughts scattered in his vision, similar to others as of late. Blacks and whites blanketed any of his creative drive or visions. And with such an empty mind, all he could muster in his silence was stare at the one seemingly organized from their mess. 

The door rang up once the final pillow was set in place. The clacking of the apartment’s entrance caught into Ayu’s ears and he shifted his attention up from his stare. Casually, a young woman entered with hefty bags by her side. “Oliver! I brought home some food!” She called out into the hall. 

Oliver was already back on the couch by that point. “You’re blind. I’m right here.”

Placing the bags down on the counter, she pulled back her bleached hair and blinked back at Oliver’s direction. “You’ve been growing more sass lately.” 

For so short of time, Oliver glanced at Ayu from the side only to return to the mother’s sight. He shrugged back at her. “I guess that’s what break’s doing to me.” A hop out of the couch and into the table later, Oliver adjusted to the somewhat new environment and asked the question, “What did you get?”

“Seafood grill,” she popped out a meal from one of the bags, “because why not?” 

Oliver grabbed another portion of the dinner from the bags, skeptical eyes peering out. “Are you getting into one of your craving-phases again?” 

The mother popped a piece of a platter into her mouth. Though, the scent made Ayu himself crave such foreign goodness. “I’m trying not to this time since shrimp’s too expensive.” 

Laughing back in a reply, Oliver assured both her and Ayu, eying him as he said, “I’ll try and repress that then,” and he snagged majority of the items from the bag. 

“Why thanks,” she replied with a humored tone. 

Please don’t eat too much, please don’t eat too much, Ayu begged internally. 

“I don’t think I’m gonna have much for dinner today anyways so you can have a buffet, Oliver.” 

“Oh.” They both glanced at each other, in both excitement and relief. “Don’t mind if I do then,” he grinned.

Though in that instance, Oliver both listened to his mother’s talk of the train-ride home and caught something in the corner of his eye. There, Ayu wobbled his way onto the seat next to his, and right across from his mother. He kept on smiling, but in his gut swerved a curve. Oh, I don’t like that. 

“How has your day been?”

Oliver caught the sentence before becoming completely distracted. “Ah,” luckily, he created a fib earlier on in the day, “I watched bad movies for most of the day I’m pretty sure.” 

“And, how were they?”

“Well, bad.”

I thought they were kind of nice, Ayu thought. 

“But,” Oliver added, “I basically just watched them all with Ayu from a video call so that’s why I didn’t stop watching.” 

“Ah,” she chewed her meal, “I’d figure you’d get bored still.” 

“Nah, he’s good for having banters with,” Oliver commented. 

Ayu sat beside patiently for food, somehow, someway. However, the conversation brought his cheeks to a gentle blush. Some sort of embarrassment or endearment, he figured. It seemed weird to him, how when Oliver talked about him, it eased him more than put discomfort. 

“Oh yeah, how is Ayu? You haven’t mentioned him in a while.”

Oliver clicked in a reminder. “I haven’t, haven’t I?... Well, he’s been cold.” 

Ayu attempted to hide his laughter at the joke, the sounds causing Oliver to flinch. 

“So… I was telling him different ways of keeping warm. Then we both got bored and that’s where we started doing stuff.” 

The mother giggled herself. “Giving life-skill lessons at age eleven, I see.”

“I’m taught from the best,” Oliver complimented.

“Why, thank you very much.” She stirred her food as she smiled warmly at him. “Hey, Oliver? I have something to ask you.” 

He stopped from his own slow-eating, anxiety gutting him at whatever would be thrown at him. “What?” 

“You… really have talked about Ayu a lot. More than anyone else you’ve really mentioned.”

Oliver’s own blush creep in at such an exposing moment. “… And?”

“So, I’ve been wondering how you’ve thought of him considering how much you’ve spoken.”

He tapped the table in a new set of awkwardness. “Right.” He pondered for words, carefully plucking them for the subject next to him. “He’s… a person.”

Ayu frowned. 

“I can tell that much,” she pushed aside, “you can go a bit further, I’m assuming?” 

Slumping his arms on the table, he sighed, “Yeah, I can…” The attempts to find his face were almost futile for the both of them. “He’s nice, and… nice to be around.” Oh god. “I don’t know, I guess he’s weirdly… charming? It’s just him.” He tugged his hair over his face, figuring Ayu laughing at this point. 

“Flustered I see… I’m only guessing, but is there a chance you like him?” 

In that instant, both eyes widened and chewing stopped for Oliver, as well as his heartbeat somehow. “What?”

“It’s nothing serious, don’t worry,” she set a hand towards him. “You’re about to reach an age of crushes soon, so I’d figure to let myself know where you’re going early.” 

“I…” Oliver’s face twitched, and turned to Ayu, whose brows raised and expression confused. He mouthed to him, “What the hell do I say?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered back.

In response, Oliver shook his head upon facing his mother again. A laugh off of the question seemed like something to try, as Oliver finally answered her with, “I’m pretty sure we just see each other as friends, Mom.” 

“Hm,” the mother studied on him, he assumed, “alright. Just remember you can say anything if you want with me.” 

Oliver stood up from his seat, pushing it in and grabbing his plate. “I know, Mom. But I think I’m gonna eat the rest of this in my room.”

“Understandable,” she replied as he left. Ayu still stayed, delayed in thought. And before leaving himself, he listened to her giggle and tell herself, “Well, there’s a first time for everything.”

Ayu slid past her, following to wherever Oliver ran off. 

Why, Mom, why? Falling flat onto the bed seemed like the best option for Oliver after placing his plate on the nightstand. He flipped around, facing the light above him as his stomach squirmed, not out of hunger however. 

Ayu entered into the new room, hanging at the edge of the apartment. He found Oliver in his laden state and formed a nervous chuckle. “I never thought of… uh, really any of that before.” 

“It’s fine,” Oliver groaned, “my mom just has a really open mind as a therapist.” 

Sitting down alongside him, he stirred the conversation. “I wasn’t raised knowing about that stuff. My mom and dad didn’t talk that much.”

The words peaked Oliver’s interest while still staring upwards. “You don’t know anything about romance, or…?”

“Nothing, do you?”

“Of course, not.” Oliver rolled over to the side opposite to Ayu. “But what did your parents do then?” 

Ayu thought in memory. “… My dad worked a lot, so he wasn’t home most of the time, and my mom was sick and sleeping too. They’d talk together like normal people or… yell, I think? I dunno, but they were nice.”

The yelling left Oliver uneased but he gripped his blankets and pushed it aside. “So… they weren’t the best couple to get an example of.” 

“I guess,” he shrugged. “What do couples usually do?”

“Really cheesy shit.” Oliver smiled as he sat up. “Like, they go on dates and act really lovey dove-y because they can.” 

“… And that means?”

The amount of Ayu’s denseness baffled him. But he continued on explaining for the humor of it. “Giving each other flowers or something and having a weirdly over-conversing dinner together; saying other weird stuff and have wine together, while getting touchy… But the worst part is…”

“What?” Ayu’s nerves discomforted him in suspense. 

“Getting kissy together.” 

“Oh, gross!” In reaction, Ayu threw a pillow at him. Oliver laughed at him. “How the fuck did I forget?”

“Ah yeah, and that part too,” he joked. 

Ayu whined, “Don’t remind me of foster care!” 

Oliver asked, “What happened in foster care?” 

“There was this girl when we were five who kept trying to kiss me.” Ayu shivered at the memory. “I think I made myself forget about it. Oh god.”

Oliver continued on his giggly streak. “I guessed I’ve awakened some repressed memories.” 

“I just thought we were good friends!” 

His cries amused Oliver, and his fears faded with every minute. “Well, hey, that means a girl had a crush on you. Congrats. Very impressive.”

“It wasn’t.” Ayu replied. “It was a mistake.” 

Cackles continued to sprout during the conversation, and endlessly through the evening to lighten their hearts. 

*** 

The night silenced both of them with only the gusts of snow whistling from the outside. 

Ayu laid underneath the soft blankets of Oliver’s bed. The cushions lifting his spirits and balancing his weight oh so comfortable with the covers blessing him a bargain of warmth. No voices spoke to him or ridiculed him in the way he dreamed to sleeping for years.

His eyes drifted, slowly, yet that of satisfactory. The day opened him with newer ones to come: no monsters in sight and perhaps a home to stay in for some while. And the one who laid next to him confirmed that possibility. 

However, a single movement interrupted that trip to slumber. Ayu snapped back awake once Oliver shifted his position. His jolt forced him to question himself, Am I that light of a sleeper? The movement stopped, and he waited for seconds upon end until nothing. Okay back to–

Another shift, then one more again. Each capturing Ayu’s attention away from sleeping. For once, he turned around to Oliver’s side, rubbing his tired eyes and asking him, “Can you not sleep?”

Moments passed before Oliver shuffled again. “I don’t usually sleep,” he whispered.

“And why’s that?”

Oliver’s pauses brought forth more wonder of the reply. But eventually, he mustered up words. “A lot of things… I don’t like the dark anymore and… if I fall asleep, I can end up killing somebody, you know?” He moved. “I’m always scared of that.”

The new fact already integrated to Ayu’s mind at such a quick pace. Perhaps his slumber smoothed any shock, or Oliver’s way of life began to normalize for him, he never understood. But instead of any concerned pleas, all he said was, “If you’re scared and can’t sleep, then I’ll stay awake with you.”

In response, Oliver sat up, and retorted, “Ayu, no. You haven’t slept in a bed for four years… Staying awake ruins the point of this.”

“… I think the point was for both of us to enjoy this.”

After no words, Ayu listened to a stifle. “It’s always like this, so I don’t think I’ll be happy.”

A pondering was necessary for what could satisfy him. But Ayu found one decent enough. “I’m here… that can help make you happy.”

Waiting a few seconds, Ayu peeped up, finding Oliver laying back down again curled up. Soon, his body shook and shivered. And his voice quaked ever so slightly, “I guess so…”

For some odd reason, Ayu’s mouth curved to a gentle smile. “Do you think you can go sleep after crying?”

A sniffle and a nod exchanged, “Yeah, maybe.”

Ayu turned back around, adjusting his covers once more. “Better than nothing.” He returned to rest, the world slowing and calming down before him into a calming black, only for ten seconds in, he felt a wrap around his body. It was Oliver, hugging him from behind. “What are you doing?”

He only hugged tighter, and it was then that Ayu felt his shaking. He croaked, “It’s just nice to know that you’re here…”

Despite being his own words, Ayu softened from them. He smiled, and said, “I guess that’s fine then.”

The connection warmed him even more than prior during that winter. And eventually Oliver’s shaking calmed to only his heartbeat that bumped into Ayu’s back. Once he gained that new sensation, he was finally eased away from Oliver’s fears, and his own. The world greeted him for something new, and that brought his eyes to drift yet again. 

And yet again, something interrupted, but this time it was his own spur of a thought, one that baffled him only to forget by the next morning: Wait a minute, isn’t this a thing couples do? 

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Crimson Capture | November 1st | A Mother | A Demon | A Child | The Wolf | Bloody Fingers | A Monochrome World | The Pocketwatch | I’ll Have My Day | Two Weeks | Monsters 

#writing #my writing #writers on tumblr #writblr #writeblr #black sun tale #bst #cold warning? #pain intolerance? #don't know what count as warnings in this case except uh #cannibalism mentions #sleep deprivision #freezing warning #also this is a little gay #bst ayu & oliver #bst oliver #bst vittorino #bst ayu #also oliver's mom

[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

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | Bread and Water

Remember that this is only a first draft with minor edits, but have fun reading! Comments and reception is greatly appreciated! --- “What I came up with today? Uh…,” Flipped some pages, “I came up with two new characters earlier?”

The city streets screeched with traffic noise and crowds chattering, smoke surrounding the air with a bar across the avenue. 

“Gabriel’s story’s kinda sad. He killed this guy named Wren, but they were like brothers.”

Off between two aged buildings, an alleyway poked out with barely any notice.

“He hates Zero- or Hiro now though. He’s the reason why Wren went crazy.”

The interior of the alley carried a scattered mess of blankets, journals, calendars, along with other miscellaneous things. Though a single journal stuck to being held, firm by the grasps of a boy. 

His sickly pale skin complemented his unkempt and grimy black hair. While his twig body shivered by the gentle cold. His boney fingers pointed at drawings from his one of many journals towards the girl next to him. “That’s Gabe when he got mad at Dannie after finding out.” His voice rasped. 

Observing the girl’s reaction, her expression perked to something of confusion. “How did Wren and Gabe get to that situation though?”

He rolled his eyes to the side. “I haven’t gotten that much into the backstory. But all I know is that they both got into a mess like Evie or Lucia.” Blinked twice. “It’s just that while Evie was mad at becoming a slave, Gabriel was mad because his entire life’s purpose was taken away from him… and he’s in denial about it being kinda his fault too.”

Her cocoa hair blocked the faces she made from the boy’s slouched position on the ground. However, she chirped up quickly enough. “Ayu, I’m really digging Gabriel right now.”

“Really,” Ayu questioned, sitting back up a little the process. “I thought he was kinda basic.”

“Yeah,” she turned her floor seat towards him, revealing her fair complexion made out of light makeup. “From what you told me so far. I’m guessing he’s being ignorant of his past mistakes completely and letting out all his anger to someone else, right? At least from what I can tell in this picture.”

“I guess so?”

“Okay, I didn’t screw up on reading the comic panel,” making a small clap with her hands. “That can be realistic if you do it right, but you can also mix in a theme with that-”

“Annette. No,” Ayu interrupted her. “When you talk about ‘theme’ and that stuff, I get more of a headache than every other minute of life,” he groaned. 

“Do you want me to get you some ibuprofens?”

“I’m fine.”

Annette nodded. “Well other than that, I still feel bad for Hiro,” she pouted. 

Ayu lifted a brow and eyed her. “He’s the one who trapped ten kids in a death maze.”

“But he’s trying to get better!”

He scoffed, “He still did bad things, that’s why Evie treated him like shit afterwards.”

“You’re the one giving him a redemption arc though?”

“I’m just trying to stay close to the original idea.” Ayu closed the book and chuck it to the side. “Even if I don’t really believe in it.”

Annette’s lips twitched. “He’s just trying to be a better person than before…”

“He was still a dick. Out of anything, you should be feeling bad for Wren.”

“How so?”

Ayu set his arms back. “He was lied to for most of his life and he only got killed in the end for having a different opinion, pretty much.”

“So, he’s pretty much a pity party?” Annette eyed him. Ayu already knew what she was telling with her expression. 

“No. He just go fucked over too much because of both Gabriel and Zero.” 

Annette rolled a shoulder, pulling back her hair in the process. “I guess I like all of them, anyways. I’m just still hoping you can pull it off well.” Her lashes fluttered in the dim lights. “Did you come up with Gabriel and Wren from your dreams again?”

Ayu hummed. “Kinda. I had a random dream last night where a guy shoots another guy with an arrow but gets sad about it. That’s how I got Wren’s death.”

“Anything else from it?”

“There was a bit more, but it’s blurry.”

“Any others dream while I haven’t been here,” She asked. 

Ayu blinked. “I just have that, some girl screwing herself over and getting her friend dead, then nothing.” 

Annette hesitated with her words. “No dreams of Lillie?”

Ayu paused, seeing Annette flinch from her own question. He buried his hands in his hoodie pockets and looked down. “… None of those.”

She apologized with her eyes narrowed. The area went silent for the two. A minute? Two? Ayu couldn’t tell. He could barely count with patience. 

“How long have you been here?”

“Huh? About an hour, I think…” She brought her phone to her view, checking the time. “God, we spent a lot of time goofing off.”

“You have homework, don’t you? You should go home, school’s tomorrow anyways.” 

“… Right.” Annette stood up, her tall figure looming before Ayu. A second of standing still, she face-palmed herself. “Oh god, I have three projects to do.”

“Then get on to it,” Ayu joked. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Annette grabbed back her already cleaned up board game and binder. “I’ll see you another time then.”

Before taking a turn back home, a “Bye” could be heard quietly over a car honking. 

Ayu studied the outside of the alleyway in silence. Every second brought a new face passing by, and it brought the reminder that no one noticed him staring. A child, a couple, a group of teens, they all went their own ways, not even taking a glance of something that’s nonexistent for them. 

The boy groaned, turning back and plopping his head to a pillow, gifted by Annette. As he slammed his body to the ground, the rough concrete hit him back. He winced like every other day when he fell over from exhaustion. Though, the routine of his ‘home’ was redundant. 

He muttered in his own silence, “Ow.”

At least he had a pillow unlike the first two years of four when living in the alleyway. 

Laying down, still and blank, Ayu sighed and grabbed his journal from the side again. He flipped through the thin paper, skimming past the art he made, and stopped at the next blank page. He crawled to grab the pencil he left on the other side of the alley earlier in the day, and crawled back to his pillow to write:

October 21st 201X

Came up with new caracters today, dont know what to do

Did noting else today, like usuel

I got a litle mad at Annette, probly was a bad idea

No monsters, No Akeldama

As Ayu moved his arms to store the book away, a voice halted him. 

“Looks like you’ll be having an insipid time again.”

Ayu jumped, sitting immediately and twisting his head around. Finding nothing, he sighed, “Speak of the Devil…” He then crossed out the note of ‘No Akeldama’ for the day. 

“Did you miss me from last time?”

Ayu leaned back to the rigid wall, conversing with the voice ringing across his head. “Just tell me what the hell is going on,” he groaned. 

“Oh child, you won’t be getting that anytime soon for sure,” The voice mocked him. 

“You’ve been telling that to me for how long?”

“I don’t know in all honestly, I’ve lost track of time after my first hundred years.”

Ayu leered at nothing. “Four years, Akeldama. Four years.”

“Ah right, you’re twelve now, correct?”

“Yeah. Turned twelve last June.” 

“Well, aside from that, have you met any new people?”

Ayu sighed. “I haven’t, luckily.”

“What a pity,” Akeldama sneered, “You were the kid that pouted about being lonely, yet once you get a friend, you don’t even want another one anymore.”

“Shut up.”

“You’re just a greedy brat.”

“What do you want now Akeldama?” Ayu’s mind raced quickly, his heart beating rapidly. 

“I was simply here to check if you were the same as before, which you are by the way,” he muttered. “Though I’m also here for something else on the matter of you.”

“Dear god, what now?” 

“Funny calling me ‘god’,” he chuckled, “but I think you’ll soon meet somebody you’ll get along with.”

“Wait…,” Ayu murmured. His eyes widened. “Akeldama don’t tell me-”

“You’ll be having fun for the next few months. I promise,” he reassured him. 

“You fucker,” Ayu yelled, slamming his fists onto the hard ground. Though, he brought both of them up immediately from the pain, gasping at the impact of the floor cracking. He held both tightly against one another as they both burned. 

“God, damn it Akeldama…”

No reply.

Ayu placed his head down into his knees and closed his eyes. His boney joints pressed against his forehead. Two deep breaths, then hold. 

He pulled his head back after seconds, groaning, “Why did I decide to go through with this…?”

Ayu’s eyes flutter back open as his stomach made a painful growl. 

“Right…” He clicked against his chapped lips. “When was the last time I ate?” 

The growl reminded him of the stomach pain from recent days, aching as he puckered. The pain bothered him, but Annette already left to his dismay. 

“I need to get food now then,” he muttered to himself. 

He hopped up from his sitting position, his bone-thin legs freezing up from the cold. Exiting the alleyway, Ayu turned to the grocery store route. 

He pulled up his hoodie quickly, his tired eyes being protected from the soft light. And he ventured out to treat himself to food and water rations.

*

A jug of water and a bag of bread, Ayu repeated to himself multiple times. 

The shop held multiple items to Ayu’s attention. Aisles carried shiny toys, colorful pencils and journals, to junk food and candy. Ayu stared at the chips bar, slurping up the slight drool dripping out of him. He shook his head. Bread and water. Bread and water. 

How long had it been for the boy to have a nice meal? When was the last time he had the sweets he loved?

Bread and water. 

When was his last chip binge? His coloring book sessions and playtime?

Stop being a bitch and get what you need already. He scolded in his head. 

He dashed to an unfamiliar aisle so his mind wouldn’t get dragged elsewhere. Stacks and piles of paper towels and toilet paper surrounded him through his short walk to the bakery. His head bobbed in a sigh that he didn’t need anything of such thanks to shop bathrooms and recreation center showers.

However, as soon as he exited the aisle, aromas of pastries and baked goods filled his senses. He ignored it since the shop’s goods were usually too sweet for him despite his tooth. Walking down, he read through the brands of bread, squinted his eyes to spell and read out some words himself. It was only until his found a decent bag of bread rolls did he go off to the drinks section. 

The sodas and fizzy pops caught eyes of most, though Ayu’s tongue had more of a distaste for it. He turned from the bright and dazzling colors to the row of water jugs. His memory of measurements buzzed in his mind, though not enough to remember how much a liter was compared to a gallon. 

After staring, his mind boggling on which was which, Ayu gave up and choose which one seemed like the largest. 

Ayu ended up carrying the bread rolls in one hand and the three-gallon jug of water with the other by his stick arms. He walked out of the aisle, closing in on the exit. 

He stepped with hesitant feet. His head twisted and turned to assure nobody near him. A single bump from someone else and he could be done for the day. 

He swept through the cashiers. His scattered gaze wandered through all of them left and right. But in a single heartbeat, his body already went passed them unlike his mind. 

Ayu sighed and took a step towards the store exit. His guilt cultivated him like every other time he’s done this. It’s better for me. Even if I don’t actually need it-

A grip of a hand pulled him back from leaving. Ayu’s heart froze as his breath started to stutter immediately. He turned slowly, and echo of a voice ringing loudly to him. I’m fucked. 

“Hey…” He saw the face of the one who grabbed him by the arm. He was around the same age as him, younger maybe, but shorter for sure. “Hey…” His light brown skin shined by the store’s lights along with the freckles dotted around his nose and cheeks. While his soft green eyes glared at him in confusion. His dark red hair was also a first for Ayu to see-

“Hey!” the kid repeated himself. Ayu blinked spastically, his breathing still frigid. “What are you doing with that?”

---

Ten Dollars | Next>>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 2 #starvation warning #swearing warning #emotional abuse #minor on the last part though #bst ayu #bst annette #bst akeldama

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | November 1st

sorry for the delay! i really hoped to have this released during my vacation but regardless, i hope you all enjoy! this chapter is fairly special, along with others from here on out

remember that this is a first draft with only minor edits, and comments are always appreciated!

-

The weather was damp on the first day of November. Rain showers drew down to the ground making minimal sound; however, it was all deafened by the daily events of Obodo. 

In the alleyway, Ayu’s body shivered in his slumber. Not a passing minute did he still. His arms and legs crouched over each other to give warmth from the cold droplets on his skin. 

“Stop bein’… cold,” he mumbled in his sleep. Though the showers continued to pinch him to a tiresome amount. 

His weariness itched him from everywhere. The noise of the crowd, the traffic; the clicking in his mind; the faded nightmare of a dream; they all dimmed into his sleep but for a second, the world went silent. In Ayu’s ears, his touch, his senses, his attention drew to a single voice calling out in a blank dream. 

“Wake up, Ayu.”

The voice whispered in Ayu ears, her tone soft and sweet, almost like a lullaby. The command kept running in his mind until his eyes finally fluttered open. 

His mind processed who was talking and his eyes dulled. Nostalgia brought him to a numb halt. 

“… Hi Lillie.”

“How’s the story going?”

“Bad.” He grabbed his journal with sluggish hands, opening it to illiterate writing. “Not as good as yours.”

“Oh really?” Her pitch perked up. 

“I can’t ask for more advice from you,” he sighed. 

“It’s a shame. There’s so much you can improve on too.”

“That’s…” he flipped a page. The used page full with a disproportionate character. “Under-exaggerating.”

“Under-exaggerating?”

“Yes, I can’t find the word,” Ayu huffed. He covered up his legs with a thin blanket after a gust of wind reminded him. 

She hummed. “I can always tell you what’s wrong if you need it.” 

Ayu kept his mouth shut, pushing himself up to sit by his wall. His eyes lingered towards the ground. He waited for what’d be inevitable. “… I know you’ll just tell it to me either way.” 

She giggled. “I’m predictable, aren’t I? Now let’s see… Well, you really are terrible. Your drawings can’t evoke the characters at all. It should already be easy for your age.” 

Ayu didn’t move. 

“You keep changing everything I gave to you. Everything you’re adding is making it worse.” Her voice was calm, no bitterness spatting out. 

“I’m sorry…” He breathed out. 

She rambled on, “If people were to see this, nobody would understand and bat an eye for what you want.”

“I’m sorry.” He repeated. His throat began to heat up. 

“Oh,” she chirped, “It’s okay to be sorry. Just remember, I’m doing this to help you…” 

Ayu gasped at a hand caressing his cheek. Another held him gently by the other cheek. Eying down, the hands were a snowy pale. Drawing his eyes ahead, a vivid figure formed by the hands. The only clear thing being the beauty of her lilac eyes. 

“Don’t cry… you look ugly when you cry,” she smiled. 

He closed his eyes against his doubt. “You’re real, right?” 

“Of course.”

“I- I know you aren’t-”

“Don’t you trust me,” she asked. 

Ayu entangled his fingers with his hair. His mind pounded in pain. “I’m sorry. I don’t.” 

 Lillie scowled. “You’ll never help anyone like that, Ayu.”

“Can you let go now?” Ayu swallowed. 

“... With pleasure.” She let her hands off of him. 

Ayu’s reality settled in by the rain again. He huffed, looking back at the girl. His legs brought himself up. He abandoned his book and her to exit the alley. 

The black-haired boy pulled up his hood as he stepped through the streets of Obodo. 

The streetlights radiated against puddles in the sidewalk cracks. Dozens carried umbrellas wide to stubble; arrangements of pinks to blues to greens spread through the streets. 

Ayu strolled and passed them all. He watched carefully at passerby’s, taking steps to avoid a single touch. 

A crosswalk pulled him to the next boulevard. “Where do I even go now?”

Damp leaves flew by from the winds, each with muddy colors of autumn.  One by one, they passed by the crowds. Though, it didn’t take long until one hit Ayu in the face. 

“Fuck…” He slipped the leaf off, drying out the water droplets on his face with his sleeve. He held the leaf by his fingertips, glaring at what just hit him while walking along. Giving a sigh, he threw it behind his shoulder in the hopes that nobody was behind. 

“I’ll just go around, I guess,” he shrugged. 

***

An hour passed; Ayu continued to wander throughout the streets. Ideas floated around his head whenever he was to pass by infamous sites and buildings. However, nothing stuck with familiarity like others would. 

That is, until he stopped by a particular park. 

The children laughed faintly in his ears. He stopped a step, turning around to see the entrance sign of Felle Park. 

Ayu’s face softened at the reminder of the setting. Maybe there.

“Let’s see,” Ayu poked his own cheek in thought, “November 1st, 201X…” 

Ayu sat in front of the playground fence. He watched silently as other kids his junior played. Their parents sat at the benches or standing, talking to each other about whatever news. Umbrellas rested by all of their sides. 

“Today so far’s… cold.” He scooched back as a little girl ran passed him. He pressed down on his lips. “Lillie wasn’t fun again, but that always makes sense.” 

Ayu took a breath. “I’m thinking about changing the story since things aren’t going good again.” He swallowed empty, dry air. 

A child fell off the swings. He sighed, “No monsters; No Akeldama.” 

As children cheered joyously from their games, Ayu observed them. In his obscure eyes, he visualized his own fun while they ran along. 

A younger kid, with scruffy black hair held back by a headband, ran throughout the playground along with others from the neighborhood. He laughed as they chased him around, dashing through everyone who couldn’t catch him. 

Ayu chuckled at the sight. 

It didn’t take long for the boy to stop. He paused to hide behind a girl dressed in a black dress, carrying an umbrella on a sunny day. Her white hair and skin were the only things capturing brightness in her still figure. 

She ratted him out merely seconds later. 

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t even see you there.” 

Ayu snapped back into reality, blinking to see a toddler, who’d bump into him, staring back. 

“Why do your legs look funny?”

Ayu jumped up. “O-oh, um, sorry, I was meaning to leave-” He looked towards the side of the exit. 

“Why do your eyes look weird-”

Ayu shook his hands towards her tilted head. “It’s nothing! I’ll uh- be going now.” He rushed off from her, pulling up his hood more. 

“God, damn it,” he muttered under his breath. He exited the playground area. He kicked his ankles without effort, making him wince from every hit. They aren’t gonna bruise. 

The farther he avoided obstacles and drifted in thought, the more he’d part ways with the sidewalk path. The rain showers continued to fall and they kept on dripping onto Ayu’s skin and clothes. 

However, it was the trees ruffling against each other that lifted Ayu’s ears. He peeked around to find a forest next to him. 

Something called out for him in his chest breathtakingly. It pulled him in a way Ayu couldn’t comprehend. 

Without a thought, he entered blind. 

*

A step in the grass can bring so much sound. The melody of them cracking and brushing each other softly rang through Ayu’s ears. It was peaceful compared to the constant ringing in his head. 

The forest whispered to him like a dream. It hid itself within its own shadows as Ayu gazed upon them. Flowers of soft blues and reds shriveled against the boy’s worn out shoes in every step. Faint scurries of squirrels and birds added to the environment. Though, even with the beautiful sight in front of him, Ayu’s head wouldn’t stop sensing something ahead of him, something to be ready for. 

“The forest is a thing I can get used to,” Ayu said aloud. He stepped over a log as he rambled and animals ran away. “If anyone’s here to listen, fuck ‘em, I guess.” 

He hopped through a tiny river. “Maybe I can get some cool rocks here… It’d make too much of a mess though.”

He spoke with whatever came up in his mind. Endless one-offs and quips echoed from the trees to Ayu’s ears. He ventured on to what seemed like a boundless forest. 

“Oh yeah, that’s why you don’t feed rice to pigeons.” He jumped off of a foot-long ledge after talking to himself for a half-hour.

“Are you done with your banter?” Akeldama’s voice rang in Ayu’s head. 

“God, damn it, I knew you were coming here sooner or later.” He stopped himself, tapping down his foot in the patience of getting through the conversation. “What are you here for now?”

“Impatient, I see. I was simply wondering how meeting Oliver went. What’d you think?”

Ayu formed a fist. “If you do anything to him, I will-”

“Don’t worry about that,” Akeldama assured, “He already has enough to worry about as is.”

“And you don’t let that slide for Annette,” he scowled.

“… You’ll understand in time. But I truly want your opinion here. What do you think of him?” 

“We just met,” Ayu exclaimed, “Most that I know is that he’s smart and can beat anyone at Ono.” 

Akeldama sighed. “That’s just for now, I suppose. I just hope that you like him.”

Ayu blinked. “Why would you want that?”

Wind blew through the forest again. Silence was the only reply for Ayu.

He kicked a rock with minimal effort. The impact let it fly across a few yards as Ayu only took a deep breath. His doubt of no-harm weighed him greatly. “What’ll the next stunt be Akeldama?” 

No reply, as always.

He walked on, shrugging off the suspicions of the conversation as just another Akeldama talk. 

Everything stayed in the same atmosphere, all until Ayu took a single step. 

From one place to another, Ayu sensed a change. There was thicker air surrounding him, almost suffocating him. All of the bustling of the critters and rustling of the trees and grass stilled, making silence the only thing to scream out.

Despite it, something in Ayu urged him to push forward. And his curiosity pulled him through. 

It only took a minute walk. The dead silence crept up through Ayu’s spine in suspense. No traffic, no talking, no footsteps, no chirping or brushes, it left him in unease. 

However, the silence wasn’t all that much of a bother once Ayu’s breath was swept away completely by the sight he found. 

It was a small field, empty of any flowers, logs, all that laid dormant was a single stump in the middle and a certain boy he’d seen days ago. 

Oliver was next to the stump, curled up and resting soundly. His hair was messy and he was draped with his crimson jacket as if it were a blanket. It would’ve been a nice scene to revisit.

Though flashes made Ayu doubt what he was seeing. With every second, the scene changed until it stopped to one that only left him with shock. 

The grass was dampened not by the rain but instead dark red liquid. What laid around Oliver and the stump were scraps of organs and flesh. They scattered all over, big and small, rotting by the minute. 

Then there was Oliver. His entire body was dressed in blood, apart from his coat. Though, splatters of intense reds rested upon his mouth and hands. 

Even with everything around him and himself, he still slept with a peaceful face. 

Ayu backed up, shaken by what was in front of him. He whimpered curses under his breath. His throat swelled up as he was on the verge of tears. His head pounded so loudly against him yet he still stood and didn’t realize the pain. 

Taking a small gulp, his gut forced him to walk forward. He raised his hand slowly towards Oliver. His entire arm couldn’t stop shaking. 

Though, it was only before Ayu could try waking him up, that he already did. 

Oliver’s eyes opened about, fluttering up along with his head. His drowsy face stared to space. 

Ayu froze in hesitation. 

It took a moment for Oliver’s expression to change. His eyes widened as he shifted his eyes left and right to see his surroundings. He shifted his hands to his stomach, pushing it in and out. “Shit.” His face turned cold. He slumped both his hands and face down, pulling up his coat’s hood and buttoning it up. It was only a mere second after did he pause, flinching up and jumping once he realized Ayu. 

They both stayed in place. Ayu’s heartbeat pounded in confusion. Why is he here? Why is there blood everywhere...?

A few seconds passed. Still no words; still no movement. Ayu’s mind jumbled up as to what to say and what to do. However, it was after those seconds did Oliver take a stand. 

Ayu stuttered out, “W-wait- uh, what are-”

Oliver dashed off immediately, pushing Ayu out of his way. 

“Wait!” Ayu pushed himself back up, stumbling off to run after him. If it weren’t for his speed, he wouldn’t have been able to catch up to Oliver’s sprinting at all, though he caught up in record time. 

Ayu grabbed Oliver by his left arm, making Oliver hiss in the process. He asked, “What the hell was that?”

Oliver hyperventilated, sweat pouring against the blood on his face. “No- please go,” he whimpered. His eyes were puffy, tears already pouring in the brink of an eye. He somehow pulled himself out of Ayu’s grasp, running off yet again. 

Ayu could read Oliver easily at least. He could tell he was scared, terrified even. Yet, the urge to understand what he’d seen led him on. 

He ran after the red-hooded boy again. 

Oliver continued to make twists and turns down his path, making Ayu fall behind. Though it was lucky for Ayu as Oliver tripped by a twig. 

Ayu caught up before Oliver could get up again. But before Ayu could do anything, Oliver cried out. “STOP THIS, PLEASE!” 

Ayu paused, watching the shaking boy curl up. His arms wrapped around his head as his begged, “Leave me alone…”

Ayu’s body relaxed as his adrenaline slowed. “I’m not gonna leave you alone like this, and without an explanation.” He pulled up his hoodie, taking it off and letting the now pouring rain settled all over him. 

“Here,” he tossed the jacket over to Oliver. “This’ll probably make the stains less… obvious.” 

Oliver peeked his head up, still shivering and shedding tears. Hesitant, he put the hoodie on, not saying a word. 

He didn’t say anything about the scent... 

Ayu reached his hand out to the redhead. “I’ll take you back to the alley.”

Oliver swallowed. And he slowly took his hand. 

***

Rain still fell through as the two boys sat against the alley wall. 

Ayu stared at Oliver, thoughts spiraling through his mind. 

Oliver only stuck his head down. “Can you…”

Ayu blinked to his attention. 

“Can you be quiet, please? I still need to process this.”

Ayu nodded, then keeping his eyes away from him. 

The sound of the rain was his only distraction. He tapped his foot, shifted his seat, looked around left and right to the crowds. His impatience prayed for time to fly by. 

It came to the point where Ayu counted 78 raindrops before Oliver quietly spoke. “This is the first time someone’s ever seen me like that.”

“But…”

“It’s-… it’s fine. I’m pretty sure out of anybody, I can tell you. You can even help, maybe… or hate me, either one.” Oliver forced out a chuckle. 

“Just tell me what’s going on,” Ayu urged. 

Oliver nodded in reluctance. He looked down as he started to explain. “I’ve… been starving for years,” he said, “Whenever I eat something from my mom or just whatever, it doesn’t process for some reason. And it’s only until I pass out and I find myself with a dead body am I actually full.” He curled himself up again. 

“Does that mean-”

Oliver nodded. “From what I can tell, I just need flesh to live.” 

Ayu shook his head, his breathing heightening. “No, no… when did this start…?”

“My seventh birthday four years ago,” Oliver explained. “I was with two friends at the park and just woke up to find them dead in the same forest. It usually happens on my birthday… like today.” He sighed. 

Ayu himself took a mental sigh of relief despite it all. However, another thing came into realization at the same time. “So… you take others’ lives…”

“I hate it enough that I don’t try to eat or pass out of exhaustion until I give in after a week.” He slammed his head back against the wall. “It hurts…” 

Responses were limited. Ayu could barely comprehend what Oliver was even saying. However, in a reluctant fashion, he asked, “It’ll get better at some point, won’t it?”

“I doubt it,” Oliver immediately responded. 

Bad pull. “I- I’m sure of it.” God, damn it, don’t lie.

They stayed in an awkward silence. No replies given and no conversation added. Ayu twiddled over his thumbs over and over again, waiting for some kind of conclusion. 

Though it was Oliver to close things up by adding, “At least we have one thing in common.”

“What?”

“We both have shitty lives, right?” Oliver looked back at Ayu, opening up his eyes instantly. 

That was when Ayu realized Oliver’s been avoiding looking at him this entire time. 

“Holy shit,” Oliver spoke. He reached out to grabbed Ayu’s arm. “How did I not realize how skinny you were?”

Ayu stammered, raising a brow. He pulled back his arm and shrugged. “I guess the jacket. I don’t really eat, remember?”

Oliver only stared. His expression twisted to concern. But all he did was take off Ayu’s own hoodie, giving it back to him. “You can have this back.” 

“Uh, thanks?”

Oliver stood back up. He licked off some of the washed-up blood on his mouth and pulled up his own hood again. “Can I go home now?”

“Uh- yeah. Just don’t do anything extreme.”

Oliver huffed out a chuckle. “Don’t worry, I definitely won’t for the next while.” He walked off to the edge of the alleyway, waving him a, “Goodbye,” as he disappeared through the building edges. 

As the calmed rain still hit his soaking hair, all he could mutter was, “What the hell…”

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Crimson Capture | Next>>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 5 #gore warning #panic attack?? #death mention #starvation warning #blood warning #swearing warning #abuse kinda #bst ayu #bst oliver #bst lillie #bst akeldama #i'm sorry

[maikatc]

5 (grettie obv) and 17

5.) Which character deserved better?

actually i’d admit that ayu is most likely the one that deserved better, but i’m in a toss up since akeldama i think should have also had something different, because its very possible that literally almost none of the bad things in the story would have happened if he had a different past, though that may also just be a sign of how bad of a person he is considering everything is his fault too–

17.) How far along are you in your current WIP? How long have you been working on it?

uhhh doing math in terms of chapters i’m apparently 72% done with the entire draft. i’m a chapter away from completely finishing part three, and in its entirety i have finished 21 chapters out of 29 (because i realized i forgot how to count and have been saying i have 32 chapters this entire time even though i wrote down the order-). and when it comes to this draft, i’ve been working on it since november of 2018 i believe, so i’ve been working on this version for almost a year and a half. but if we’re counting the entire idea and versions of bst, i’ve been writing this story since august of 2016, so that’s about three years and eight months since i had to google that honestly. 

-

send an ask :)

#i fORGOT TO POST THIS I'M SORRY #ask time #bst ayu #bst akeldama #uh bst

[maikatc]

8 and 13?

8.) Which OC is your favorite?

i,,, you know what i’m saying akeldama. him and ayu are up there but akeldama for me is just a very lovable character (i say with a grain of salt because oh my god is he a bad person). then again, i consider myself to be the most like him out of all of my characters so that may also be why. good vibes.

13.) Do you prefer writing with small casts of characters or large casts

oh god i love big casts to be completely honest. it’s always fun to make a puzzle out of it and seeing those graphs or webs of how every character is linked to one another and the ways they’re involved in the story and its just so fun to discover things about them. which is why i try to do the same for some of my stories, but for the most part i can’t handle writing them. typically i start out with trying a large main cast and that flops for pacing reasons, then side characters get a little loopy from here and there. for bst, i made it slightly smaller by just mentioning characters beyond the story that are in a sense connected to other side characters and their own stories, since i even adore little things like that. to be completely honest, i want to explore those characters i wasn’t able to for this story somehow, but i’m going to see how it all plays out for the better. 

tldr: i really really like large casts but have to downsize for my books’ sanity, but i try my best to still be wide range in the world.

-

send in an ask :)

#ask time #writers asks #bst akeldama #bst ayu

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | Crimson Capture

Things are calm before a quiet storm, let’s just say that. 

Remember this is only a first draft and has minimal edits, but enjoy! Comments and reception is always appreciated!

-

“Are you actually going to talk with them anytime soon?” 

Oliver’s cold skin snuggled up against blankets; he read a book off of his shelf. “I’m trying to do homework, excuse me.” He frowned. 

“It’s been a week, Oliver. They probably think that you already rejected them.”

He turned a page. “It’s not that I rejected them… I already looked through the situation but I still don’t know.” 

Vittorino raised a brow. “And what did you get from looking through?” 

Oliver ignored the question first, skimming through the dull read he grabbed. Though his thoughts blocked the pages the more he went on. 

He sighed and closed the book. “I didn’t really get that much out of the interaction. But out of anything I can tell that Annette isn’t actually that involved with the group since she’s with busy with having an actual life. That and the two’s relationship is probably complicated since Annette doesn’t really try to get Ayu out of bad habits and they argue at little stuff like crazy; But at the same time, Ayu may have simply cared enough about not messing with Annette’s work after he screwed it up before, and didn’t want to bother her with something that’s technically unnecessary for him. Regardless of anything though, they’re completely inefficient as a team because their able-ness is terrible and Ayu’s right about not getting hopes up.” Oliver rambled words out in the matter of seconds, zoning out into his thoughts in the process. He took a breath at the end. “I can tell they have good intentions, but yeah they’re pretty much useless.” 

Vittorino crossed his arms together with a grin, muttering, “You can definitely talk like em…” He emerged next to him. “You’re smarter for your age, I must say.” 

“I just have good memory.” Oliver opened up his book again. “Doctors say I have a larger hippocampus than most. But I’ve been lacking in recent years compared to when I was little.” 

“Yeah, yeah, makes sense,” Vittorino nods, “but either way, your friends will be- interesting to you at the very least. Trust me.” 

Oliver scoffed, “I already know they’d be entertaining. It’s just that they’ll probably end up like all the rest. I already told you.” 

“Okay then. Let me tell you in a different way then,” he groaned. “They’re not gonna be like the rest.” 

A buzz rang from the corner of the room. Both Oliver and Vittorino turned towards the sound, Oliver quicker than the other. Oliver stumbled out of bed to check his phone. All there was another message from Annette, the third one of the week. 

Yo Oliver, Ayu and I are hanging out in the alley again if you wanna join us (12:13pm)

“God, damn it,” the boy said under his breath. His fingers tattled at words, typing up that he was busy making new chord melodies.  If it weren’t for someone interrupting him, he would’ve sent. 

“Go with them for once,” Vittorino told him, “You’ll have better days that way.” 

“… Will you stop talking if I do?”

“Obviously.”

Oliver’s face went flat. “You’re decent.” He edited the message:

I actually can today, but I was about to work on making some chord melodies so I’ll just bring my ukulele with. (12:15pm)

***

Oliver carried his worn-up uke strap over his shoulders. The day blistered in heat unlike the chills of before, though it didn’t stop him from wearing a thin coat. 

The walk to Ayu’s still made his eyes go blurry from the distance. His legs gave in as always from another long week as they screeched in pain. He mumbled to himself with a deep breath, “Just don’t pass out in front of them.” 

He clenched onto his ukulele strap as he stood back up from his slouch. The turn was straight ahead of him, and his predictions for what he would see was something he still couldn’t guess yet. “They won’t be that bad,” he figured. 

“YOU MOTHER OF FUCK- HOW DID YOU DO THAT?” Oliver could still hear the same raspy voice from before in the distance. 

“Hopefully,” he cringed. 

Oliver walked into the alley, reluctantly knocking the wall for entrance. Annette and Ayu sat in front of one another, cards in their hands and scattered on the floor. Annette turned her head while Ayu looked over his own cards. “Oliver! Hi,” She stumbled up to greet him. “You came sooner than I thought. We’ve been playing Ono for a bit but you can join in if you want.”

“Ono…?” Oliver peeked across, sighting at the colorful cards closely. His eyes squinted at Ayu’s array of cards in his hands. He also peeked down towards Annette’s cards quickly to see her deck of five. He can literally just pull a yellow two. A grin curled up on his lips. “So, this is what a ‘gang’ does, huh?”

Annette’s eyes leaned toward the side, “Well, we usually goof around when there aren’t any attacks. It’d be too hard to track down when there’s only two people scouting. Right, Ayu?”

They both looked back to Ayu, and both found him fumbling to switch cards form the collector’s deck. Ayu blinked at them as he peeped his eyes in return, then groaned, placing the previous cards he had back to his hands. 

“Goodness…” Annette sighed. “We sometimes play board games and figured today should be a game-day since you were coming over.”

“This was only Annette’s idea,” Ayu reminded. 

She chuckled, “You’re even more competitive than me. Be quiet.”

Annette continued to ramble on to Oliver as he spaced out in the middle. He only interrupted her after a minute by saying, “Okay yeah, I’ll play. Get me some cards.”

Oliver beat them both by a landslide, Annette left with nine cards, Ayu left with thirteen. 

“Oliver, how the heck did you do that?” Annette read over all the cards. 

“Don’t worry about that,” he smiled, “You’ll learn how to use the right strategies at some point.”

“This is Ono! There are no strategies.” Ayu threw his cards over his head as he slumped to the ground.

“You out of anybody won’t figure it out.” He wasn’t even sneaky about cheating. 

“Try me.” Ayu sat up with a smirk. 

“Ayu, you don’t even know how to strategize on anything,” Annette laughed. Oliver played around with his case’s zipper until she asked him, “So you play ukulele, right.”

Oliver reluctantly nodded.

“I know some friends who have ones, but I barely see any guys with ‘em.” She waddled over to Oliver and his uke, arms swaying towards the case. 

“Uh, yeah,” Oliver nodded, his smile curving, “No guy in my class can actually sing or do that stuff, so my class thinks it’s cool…  but I was thinking of starting up guitar or piano though since it’s more practical-” 

“So, you don’t just do tabs?”

“Uh, yeah.”

In the corner of his eye, Oliver caught Ayu scurrying off to a sketchbook and pencil. 

“Can you sing a song for us? I wanna see how good a ten-year old is,” she giggled. 

I’m tired though. “Sure.” 

Oliver opened up the case, showcasing a small instrument. The paintjob was chipped off. The vibrant pattern that original shined was worn and blurred. Oliver picked it up, plucking and tuning with the scratched-up nylon. Tuning only took the matter of ten seconds. 

Just a breath was fine for the young boy. His decision on the song gave him the memories of interrupted practices. Though with the plucked introduction, he began his song. 

“Oh, my Red Maria. How long has back then been?” 

A classic ballad. Oliver observed as Annette rang up with her ears with excitement in her face. Ayu tilted his head, in curiosity, his attention off the book. 

“My life’s been dull without your blushing face.”

The chords and tabs slid through Oliver’s fingers like writing his own name. His eyes captured their expressions. While Annette’s face blurred in with every other he’s seen, Ayu had a calmed smile, everything else was unreadable. 

“When we meet again, we can reach the stars as always…” He stumbled at a stop. Man, I forgot to figure out the short-stop. “The rest is just repeating so that’s about it.” 

“That…” Annette stammered, “That was actually more than I expected.” 

Oliver shrugged, leaning on his ukulele. “It isn’t that hard of a song.” 

“I can’t play anything for crap,” she grinned, “Why are you just ten?” 

“He’s turning eleven this week though,” Ayu corrected. 

“Barely a difference!” 

Ayu stuck his tongue out towards her. He gestured to Oliver. “I liked it.” 

“Ah, thanks.” The responses were mindless and repetitive. “I usually don’t have people to listen so this is a nice-”

A ringtone began buzzing, stopping all the other noises crowding the alley. 

Annette raised a finger, “Hold on a second.” She picked up her own phone from a small bag, raising it to her phone to answer the call. “Yo Jaiden, what’s up?... Oh lort- I forgot about that!” 

“What do you think this is about?” Ayu moved over next to Oliver’s floor-seat. 

“What do you mean?” 

“She forgets extra stuff a lot, so it’s nice to pass time guessing what it is,” Ayu explained. 

Oliver chuckled, “You really don’t have a lot to do, don’t you?”

“I’m betting a group project.”

The boy’s scent still wrinkled in Oliver’s nose. “Maybe it’s just…? I can’t think of one.” 

“Well, she’s pretty predictable so I don’t think there’s that much to bet about anyways.” He pulled on his hoodie’s lace.

“Right…”

She combed her hair with his fingers. “I told you to remind me!... Okay fine, yeah this is a me problem,” she sighed, “I’ll get them today then we can work afterschool tomorrow, okay?... Okay, see ya.” 

She groaned in her hands, but whisked back to Oliver and Ayu from behind. “Okay so I screwed up a bit,” she exclaimed, “and I have to go to the mall to get stuff for a project due on Friday.” 

“That you forgot about?” Ayu eyed. 

“Yeah, yeah, silence yourself,” she hassled. “Um… I don’t want to go since you’re here,” she darts Oliver. 

“We can always come along,” Ayu said. 

“Oh,” Annette hands opened up. “That’s actually a good idea. Oliver, do you wanna come with us?” 

Do I really want to…? 

“Do it,” Vittorino’s voice rang in Oliver’s head. 

Damn it. “Sure.”

***

Shop lights blinded all around. Every store passed with its rows of sales and mannequins. Oliver walked along the outdoor mall, the sunny day in the Fall blazing onto his dimmed skin. The music echoed with aggravating speakers and pop ballads, and the sounds of voices rang through Oliver’s ears by the heavier crowd. 

I can get through this for a bit. She won’t be long, he told himself. He clenched his fists as volumes went at screeches. 

Annette hummed as she led both Ayu and Oliver, her walk swaying along with the music. All the while, Ayu’s hood covered over his head as he walked with his head down. Though looking down wasn’t that strange for Oliver, he’d done the same alone. 

“It’s burning out here. How’re you in that hoodie?” He asked. 

Ayu tilted his head towards Oliver. “I’m usually cold. Today’s not that bad but it’s still kinda cold.” He shrugged. “Besides, I can always bump into somebody and they can see my eye easier and I won’t get as bad of a sunburn.” 

“Sunburn…?”

“My skin’s pale enough to get burned easily,” he raised and showed his boney hand, “not albino or anything but just sensitive.” 

“I see.” Oliver’s brows furrowed. Damn… 

“Okay!” Annette jumped. “You guys can do whatever you want. I gotta deal with the supply stuff.”

She grabbed her phone. “Oliver, I’ll call you when I’m done, alright?”

“Yeah,” Oliver nodded. 

“Alright, then see ya!” She waved off before dashing away. Muttering of items got caught in Oliver’s ears as she ran. 

“So…” Ayu kicked his leg, “You wanna do anything?” 

Oliver stammered. Where would this guy even wanna go here? He shrugged. “Just somewhere quiet is fine, what about you?”

“Quiet,” he pondered, “I guess that could work… Here, let’s go.” 

Ayu pulled on Oliver’s sleeve, dragging him to a map of the area. He asked, “Do you know where the bookstore is on here?” 

“Ah,” Oliver’s attention zapped back, “It’s right there I think.” He pointed at the very corner of the mall. 

“What’s it called?” 

“Ferns and Hamlin’s?” It’s right there on the sign… 

“Oh yeah,” Ayu gasped. “When was the last time I was even there?”

He gave a small grin, walking off from Oliver to a turn. “Come on,” he nodded off. 

“Come on, kid,” Vittorino echoed. 

Oliver followed. 

***

“Even with clairvoyance, you’re terrible with directions,” Oliver groaned.

Ayu scoffed. “I can’t use it for anything other than monsters,” he looked away, “and that sucks too.” 

Oliver brushed off Fall dust. “Regardless of whatever you have, that took us longer than needed.” 

“Shouldn’t you know this place?”

“No,” Oliver answered, “I never go here. I go to Fair Woods and even that’s rare.” 

“… How much do you go out?” 

“Less than normal,” Oliver quickly replied. 

“Sounds about right.” Ayu eyed Oliver’s hands. “You look pale even with your tan. Paler than before I think too.”

Well that’s for other reasons… 

The two entered the shop together. Oliver immediately silenced from the soft music. The change of atmosphere contented him considering before. The aisles stacked with books barely held anybody else around as the cashiers only stood in patience. 

“They’d have comics here, right?” 

Oliver hiccupped once Ayu queried him. He only nodded off while reading over the signs. “Probably.”

Ayu stepped pass. “I think I can find it on my own,” he muttered, leaving Oliver at the front. 

Oliver stared at space as the boy walked off, debating on what exactly to do. 

“How’s it going so far,” Vittorino asked. His stature standing right next to Oliver right after Ayu’s leave. 

Oliver’s face scrunched up. “They’re… fine, just like before. But that was the first time anyone’s ever mentioned me being paler than usual.” 

“They’re people who can see a lot more than others can, remember?”

“I didn’t think that that’d matter in my case,” Oliver exclaimed. His legs began pacing through to the novel aisle. All that the aisle covered were teen-pandering novels involving the Wonder Chronicles and other stories that made it to film. As Oliver grabbed a book left in the corner, he turned around to find Vittorino already gone. He shrugged. Grabbing a book with a familiar title. “Heard this was good…” 

Reading the sections, Oliver strolled to the comic area of the shop. The brightness of colors beaming from the graphic novels. In the corner, Ayu sat curled up with his knees, starting up a comic book from the very first page. 

Oliver sat next to him, crisscrossed with a steady back. “Whatcha’ reading,” he asked. 

Ayu perked up, his ear twitching. “Huh? Oh,” he closed up his book and pushed the cover straight at Oliver’s face, “It’s a Crimson Capture comic. I remember loving their old cartoon when I was younger so I’m giving it a shot.” 

Crimson was unmistakable for Oliver. With their dashing velvet cloak and drawn-out, dark hair, they’d dash through cities to fight crime with only the power of their wits. All that could be known of their identity was hidden by their signature masquerade mask to run through the night.

While Oliver found the idea interesting, he could never take the vigilante seriously to most of his classmates’ dismay. So, all he replied with was a, “Cool.”

They both read with soft pop playing in the background. Minute by minute Oliver passed through pages. Though throughout the read, all Oliver could think of was, cliché. 

It’d already turn to a good half-hour once Oliver slammed his book shut. “Lazy writing,” he muttered to himself. 

He settled the book to the side, taking a breath as he grew self-aware in the atmosphere again. He shifted his attention back to the boy next to him.

Glancing for a second, Oliver could tell Ayu had only finished a decent quarter of the comic. His eyes held focus on the words as he continued to squint repeatedly. 

“How come it’s taking you so long to read?” Oliver asked without thinking. 

Ayu blinked, facing away from the book again. “Oh, it’s usually hard for me to read. Usually in stuff in small words.” 

Oliver paused, processing the words Ayu had said. “You haven’t been at school for a while, haven’t you?”

“Nope,” Ayu laid his book down, “Stopped at around eight. Even back then I was bad, but they didn’t care as long as I had fun.” He chuckled at his own words. 

Oliver hummed. “I was never like that.”

“Really?” Ayu’s voice grew deadpanned. 

“I skipped a grade when I was younger for how fast I was learning, so everyone expected me to do everything well and didn’t worry.” Oliver patted on his ukulele case. “After skipping though, I started falling behind because of- this one guy… Do you know anybody named Faustus?” 

Ayu blinked and scrunched up. “Who the hell names their kid Faucet?” 

Oliver studied his reaction only to find confusion written on his entire face. He sighed, but chuckled from the name confusion. “He… was a weird kid. Popped up out of nowhere and talked to me whenever he was bored.” He chuckled to himself, “He looked like a tween emo-head too so that didn’t help anything.” 

“Reminds me of stuff,” Ayu muttered. 

“I liked him, though. He was fun, in a strange way.” Oliver pulled his chin up towards the cabinets, searching for words of memories. “He was kinda judgmental back then when I talked with him. Not sure why, but it could’ve been from either him being surprised of how smart I was for my age… or streets-dumb. I can’t tell.” His mind basked at the thoughts he had as a kid. The interactions he had with the white-haired kid baffled him for how unknowing he was. 

Then sights of someone walking away and disappearing came before his eyes. Oliver nodded his head down again in expectance of what to come from the flashback. “He told me he had to leave right before I turned seven. Gave me something and went off. Haven’t seen him since.” 

Ayu asked, his tone reluctant, “What did he give you?”

Oliver paused, biting his lip gently so it wouldn’t bleed again. “I can’t remember. I threw it away a bit after I’m pretty sure.”

A ring came from Oliver’s pocket. He picked up his phone, Annette’s name flashing at the front for a call, and flipped it open. “Are you done?” 

“Yup. Luckily, it didn’t take that long so that’s good. I’m right by the food court so you guys can come up here.”

Fuck, we have to figure out how to get there. “Sounds good. See ya then.” He hung up, informing Ayu of what Annette told him. 

Ayu groaned in response. “Why the food court?”

“I dunno, she just said to be there.” 

Ayu wrapped himself around his arms and knees. “That’ll kill my stomach,” he muffled. 

Oliver rolled his eyes. 

They stored away their books together, not bothering to put them in the right place out of laziness, and exited the shop. As they walked, the crowd noise grew to Oliver’s ears once again. 

“Fuck…” Ayu muttered, tugging on his hood. 

“What?”

“I forgot about how loud this place is.”

Oliver tilted his head. “You’re bothered by it too?”

“More than traffic,” Ayu spat, “at least I got used to that one, kinda.”

Oliver smiled. “I have sensitive ears too. Sucks, doesn’t it?”

“Completely.”

Don’t worry about it. Mine’s probably worse than yours. 

“No, mine’s worse…” Ayu mumbled to himself. 

Oliver’s sights turned to the boy again. Did he just- 

A hand pushed Oliver by the chest. He flinched as similar motions of back then popped back into his mind. The boy whipped his head around to see who gave him the money in his hands again. And all he saw was a man in a trench coat. 

“What the hell, Vittorino,” Oliver spat. He ignored Ayu, who walked off without noticing a thing from what Oliver could decipher. Though as soon as he asked, Vittorino was already gone in a blink.  

Oliver stared down at the money, the intentions unclear. He then shoved it in his pants-pocket and dashed off to catch up with Ayu. 

The walk took shorter than the last, thanks to multiple bright signs directing towards the area.

As Oliver walked up steps to the court, he was immediately welcomed to the aroma. Though to his distaste, he passed it off. 

“Dear God, that smells amazing.” Ayu purred, a slip of drool falling so slightly on his chin. 

Well too bad for you, we don’t have any money- oh. A click formed in Oliver’s mind. He fumbled grabbing Vittorino’s money. “I have money if you want some food.”

“Seriously?” Ayu batted his head. His eyes shined despite one with dull grey. 

Oliver nodded, opening up his hands to show his change to the boy. “It’s enough for the two of us. I’m pretty sure Annette can get herself food too.” 

“Thank you,” he gasped. His smile was crooked but Oliver read it clearly. 

“It’s really nothing,” Oliver exclaimed. “Here, I’ll call Annette right now.” 

He dialed her number without looking at the phone and placed it against his ear. “You called?”

“Hey uh, Ayu actually wants some food here so I was thinking that we can eat together. I have money for him, don’t worry.”

Ayu shied away in the corner of Oliver’s eye. He fumbled with his hoodie’s aglet.

“That sounds great! I’ll get us a table and text you guys where. You get your food, he must be hungry.”

“Okay, I’ll talk with him about what he wants first off. See ya.” Oliver hung up to check up on Ayu again. 

“You really don’t have to do this, you know,” Ayu swallowed. “I don’t need to eat.”

“No, it’s alright,” Oliver said, “Just tell me what you want and I’ll get you it.” Besides, I have no clue what else to do with this cash.  

Ayu pouted but his stomach stopped him with a growl. He sighed and pointed, “Can we go to the Asian place over there?”

***

Ayu carried over his stacks of a meal while Oliver stared in a baffled state of mind. He himself carried only a small plate of food. 

How was there fifty-dollars in there? Holy shit. 

“My God, this smells delicious.” Ayu licked over his chapped lips. “Where did Annette say she was again?” 

“Right there,” Oliver pointed out. Annette stood tall against her surroundings with her bright face. She waved as soon as her face met with theirs. 

Oliver and company sat at a small table. Multiple families and friend groups surrounded them as they chatted about whatever. Steam and smoke from each and every store came seeking out throughout the entire area while toddlers cried for ice cream they wanted. 

“So how did shopping go for you?” Oliver played around with the pork dish he ordered, taking small bites every two or three minutes. 

“Not all that hard,” Annette answered, “Jaiden was yelling at me left and right about what to get though.” She chuckled while nom-ing a burger. 

Ayu never entered the conversation the two were having. Majority of the time his face was stuffed with sushi rolls and salmon grills. Oliver glanced over the note. 

Annette and Oliver continued conversing as Annette ate her meal. Though, as time went on, Oliver realized that there really was no use for him to get anything. He checked up on Ayu, who was almost done completely in the matter of minutes. His and Annette’s talking finished so he went and asked. 

“How were you able to finish that much fish?”

Ayu chewed as he spoke, “I just really like sushi. Seafood in general…” He gulped. “Fish.” 

“Enough to have that much?”

“I was in the mood. Plus, I feel like I’m starving so that’s for one thing.” He took his last bite, falling down on his seat as soon as he swallowed. “That was amazing. Thanks.” 

Oliver eyed down on his plate and shoved it towards Ayu. “You can have mine too. I’m not that hungry so-” Ayu snatched the plate and wolfed it all down immediately. Oliver froze in response, shaken by the speed. “Damn.” 

Annette laughed as she glanced off her phone. Though Ayu thanked Oliver again as he opened his first bottle of water. 

Oliver sat next to him in slight disbelief. The animalistic tendencies being both interesting to watch yet questionable all the same. However, all he could make up in his head was, It’s alright. Don’t discredit the guy. You do the same stuff sometimes too. Just- worse… 

All Oliver could read from him was a childish smile. 

***

Four o’clock in the afternoon and the street bustling was as high as ever. 

Oliver walked along silently, following the two ahead of him. He waited for anything to interrupt the dragging moments. An accident, Vittorino, him passing out, his expectations for something loomed throughout his mind. 

Ayu and Annette chatted in front of him. They talked about some sort of show or story, just something Oliver had no knowledge of. Though from what Oliver could read, all the passion seeped out of Ayu’s weak voice as he talked. However, the conversation stopped at a halt as Ayu himself fell to his knees. 

“Ayu,” Annette gasped out. She kneeled down supporting him. 

Ayu began to shake, placing a hand on his right eye. He stammered whispers until he was able to form words. “Ende Street. Down the road. They’re over there.” He pointed with a dragged-up hand, weak enough to fall at any second.

“That’s so close,” Annette said, “Is it fine for you to stay here?” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Ayu breathed out, “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” 

She nodded and stood up, throwing the shopping bag she held to Ayu. She gestured at Oliver. “Come with me,” and she ran off. 

Oliver stepped forward, but hesitated. He turned back to see Ayu again, down on his luck. The child clenched onto his ukulele strap unsure of whether to give it to him or not. Though in a rush, he dashed his way around still holding onto his instrument. He can look inside.

Catching up to Annette, he asked her, “Is he gonna be okay?”

“Don’t sweat it,” Annette assured him while running, “This happens all the time.”

As soon as her sentence ended, Oliver’s eyes stopped upon a gate entrance. Annette slowed her pace as well, signaling him with a hand and whispering, “Be quiet, it’ll be trickier for it to notice us.”

Oliver nodded. He took steps he himself could hear faintly. His case rustled against his back in inconvenience. From a distance, Oliver caught the sounds of deep grunts and breaths that grew louder as he drew closer to a clear view. 

Annette whispered to him again. “Once you see everything, don’t freak out. I’ll deal with the monster for you.” 

Oliver gulped. A realization crossed his mind. The scent that he picked up strongly in the area was of a familiar crimson liquid. 

Taking a turn to the door took Oliver’s breath away. Bodies filled the bloodied floor with punctures in their chest. Their skin was grey like so many before. Their faces held frozen in shock for the rest of their time. A sick hole formed in Oliver’s stomach as his throat lumped together. Not again.

At the corner of his feet was that of a little girl and her family. Her rosy cheeks draining from her as her blood trickled down from her body. Oliver’s own skin turn cold. He bit down against his lip. This is just-.

“There.” Annette nudged Oliver, breaking him out of his trance. Her head faced upwards, causing Oliver to follow on his own still shaking. Though, what stood above was as unearthly as himself. 

The creature was hunched, cradling its lean, sharp claws over its stick hands. Its skin was almost nonexistent, as a black mist surrounding formed its indescribable shape. Darkness was all you could sense from the monster. That, and the blood stained over its arms. 

Oliver stepped back as the monster tilted its head over to them. Its face drooped down to an uncanny horror. Mists of white and red formed the eyes and fangs. The eyes stared directly at the two as Oliver held his breath. 

“Stand back,” Annette commanded. Oliver stood frozen in his spot, gazing at his surroundings. 

Annette drafted her feet closer to the monster. Their distances meeting in a confrontation. A breath suppled her movement as she planted her legs apart in an assertive stance.

“Isn’t he going to attack us,” Oliver whispered. 

“Don’t worry.”

A hand drew from her side, locking itself into midair and fingers spread wide. “You need patience for aim,” she said softly.  Though, the soft voice turned into a loud radiance. “Hey, Jumbo!”

The monster turned around in slow agony at her. 

She yelled, “You wanna go back?” 

A squeal was heard from the monster, crying in tone. Its bloody hands and legs pounced in a scream. But before it could form a dent on her skin or a creep of her blood, a silent blast distorted the monster from Annette’s hand. Twists and turns misshaped the formless beast down to a single sphere in the air. The monster cried before the little sphere was left, and it tortured Oliver’s ears and mind. 

Once the screams stopped, Oliver pulled up his head again to view what was left. And the sphere was gone as soon as it appeared to him, as its remains flew away in black fragments.

Annette huffed, dropping her arm down. “That’s how… you kill a monster.” 

She then crouched down to sit, taking her hands to a prayer. She turned her head back to Oliver, who only began to process what had happened for the previous two minutes. She told him, “You can join if you want, but I’ll be quick.”

Oliver’s expression softened as he was reminded of the true results of what happened in the place. For him, it was dead silent. No traffic, no chatter could be heard. All that rang through the two of them was the silence of the innocent. 

He walked next to her and took a knee down to sit as well. And they prayed together for the lost lives.

***

“It’s a bummer we couldn’t get anybody today,” Annette sighed. “We were so close to it too.”

“I’m…” Oliver traced his words. “I’m sure the next time it’s close, it’ll be fine.”

Annette giggled. “Nah, this is normal for us. So, we kinda just go for effort.” She kicked a can out of her way, though it barely moved. She dawdled over her steps. “Ayu should be where we left him. He’s probably fine but now.” 

They took a turn to the street where Ayu was left. The city-noise returned to Oliver’s ears as time went on. It would’ve only taken them 5 minutes’ time to get back to the alleyway afterwards. 

“You know,” Annette started. Oliver turned to find her in a small smile. “You better get your powers soon. Speed like Ayu could be really helpful for the job!” 

Oliver huffed a response. “I’d figure.” He followed his own steps, thoughts rambling throughout his head. But he was cut short by a familiar black-haired boy standing in front of him 

“How’d it go,” Ayu asked. His hands were shoved into his pockets as he held a numb expression. 

“We weren’t able to get anyone again,” Annette answered behind Oliver. “But at least Oliver didn’t panic first thing.” 

“Oh yeah, how did it go for you?” Ayu shifted to Oliver. 

“It was… alright, I guess.”

Ayu raised a brow. “Weird. I thought you’d be more scared.” 

Oliver avoided eye contact. “Don’t worry about that. It’s fine.” 

Together, they all went back to the alleyway. Its messy composition remained unchanged. 

“So, this was a… decent meeting day.” Annette grabbed her things while talking. “Oliver, don’t get too worried about the entire monster thing. Or at least- don’t feel too bad about it.” 

“Like I said, it’s fine,” Oliver swatted out. It’s not the worst. He glanced the time on his phone. 

“Well, I’m about to leave myself as you can tell.” Annette waved with cards in her hands. “Are you gonna do fine for the rest of the day, Ayu?”

He shrugged. “It’s like any other day so yeah.” 

“Then just don’t die.” Annette jumped after grabbing up her shopping bag. She took a step out of the alley and waved to Oliver and Ayu. “See y’all whenever.” She walked off without a trace. 

“See ya,” Ayu replied. 

Oliver didn’t say a word. His throat itching at the memory of the area death. I’m gonna be thinking about that all day, aren’t I? 

“So, you’re going too?” Ayu sat down as he asked. 

“Oh,” Oliver cut his thoughts short. “Yeah. My mom’s probably gonna come back from work soon.”

“Ah, well, have fun with her then.” He grabbed his sketchbook into his hand, starting to write with the pencil inside. 

Oliver nodded. He dipped down his head in thought. “I may not be here for the next few days. So, see you eventually.” 

“See ya,” Ayu said without facing him. 

Oliver left. His small feet paced back home without any thoughts in his mind. 

The door clicked, Oliver’s head poking out as he entered. The living room had no change since the previous year. He took his steps towards the couch in which he tossed his ukulele to a small pillow. Immediately, he lunged his body down to the cushions afterwards. 

“God damn, this was a long day,” he groaned. 

His eyes would barely lay open. His mind slowly grew hazy as his entire body went heavy. 

“Not today,” he muttered. In a sigh, he pulled himself back together with the minimal energy he had. Stumping back, he opened his ukulele case and grabbed an item from an inner pocket. 

A voice rang in his ears, not of Vittorino, but of a vivid reminder. “Don’t be afraid of what will come.”

Did you expect me to follow that? 

He stumbled with his head down through the hallway. His stomach cried in pain. 

“Just wait,” he told himself. “Just wait…” 

He locked himself in the bathroom, facing himself against the sink mirror. The boy stared at his own deathly eyes. 

I’m not gonna make it again, aren’t I? 

-

Ten Dollars | Bread and Water | Red Eye | Next>>>

#writing #my writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #bst #chapter 4 #gore warning #swearing warning #fish? #bst oliver #bst ayu #bst annette #bst vittorino #bst faustus? #faucet