Suburbia

[roule]

Spoiler: authors note

so this story kinda just snuck into my head and refused to leave until i started writing, so here it is!

title is from this

chapter title is from this

1.

VESSEL

The night it happened was an oppressively hot night, the air feeling as if it was weighing you down, smothering you with waves of heat. The forest within Easly Park --- deep within the southern part of Florida --- was dark, trees hanging above and dwarfing anyone who walked the trails. Occasionally a refreshing gust of wind would pass through the trees, the rustling leaves making an ominous rattling that seemed to echo throughout the park, causing the lone man walking through the path to whip his head around in fear, before stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets and walking a little faster, his eyes darting around.

This wasn’t his first time being in the forest alone, in the dark, having filmed stuff for a horror story that seemed to be on hiatus forever. However, he’d had a few drinks too many at his friend’s house, (5 shots of vodka…? 6 shots of whiskey…? It didn’t matter.) and could barely keep his thoughts straight, let alone fight off some attacker coming from the overgrown underbrush by the sides of the gravel trail. It wasn’t like he wanted to get plastered tonight, but those drinks just kept coming and everyone at the party seemed to be having a good time, so why not? Plus, the drinks kept him from remembering how vapid and boring his life at home was, living alone, single, with a awful job in a pharmacy that didn’t pay well and no social life to speak of because of it. He sniffed angrily as he walked farther down the path, the woozy euphoria of drinking not quenching his discontent. How perfect.

The man was halfway through the forest before he heard a sudden loud rustle, and sharp breathing. He froze, looking around him in an attempt to see whatever was moving. Maybe he was just drunk, he thought to himself, before shrugging and walking a few steps forward with a loud crunch of gravel. The man heard another rustling noise, much closer this time, and his head flitted backwards, blinking rapidly in an attempt to see. There hasn't been any monster or demon attacks in several years, right? The only attack that he can recall in his stupor is one involving a 5 year old girl and some sort of gigantic, dark… panther? At least, that's what he remembers… The demons and monsters that hadn’t learnt to fit into human society were the most deadly, having a harsh grudge towards humans of any kind for intruding on their territory long ago. It wouldn’t surprise him if one of them was lurking around, looking for an easy kill.

“Hello?” The man said, only hearing his voice echo in the distance. He heard the bushes rustle, and managed to see movement in the bushes by his right side. Too small to conceal a panther, his mind notes.

“Hello?” He repeated, and was answered by a heaving breath out. The man bent down to squint into the bushes, where he could see a vague figure in the bushes, shaking violently.

“Are you okay, man?” He asked, cocking his head in concern.

He only got a deep gurgle in response, almost if the figure was trying to clear something from its throat, and watched as the figure tried its best to crawl out of the brushes, hands visibly scrabbling in the gravel. The man didn’t know what to think about this figure, it didn’t appear to be a demon trying to kill him. In fact, it was acting kind of like it was trying to get him to help it, and the man felt a deep pity set in his heart, despite his best attempts to stay somewhat unfeeling towards it.

The figure heaved again, reaching out for him. Some sort of liquid glinted on their hand, dripping down onto the grass silently. The man reached his hand over, clasping his right hand over the figures. Their hand felt normal, sticky and wet from whatever was on the figure’s hand, but it didn’t feel like a claw, wasn’t cold or sharp but warm and soft. He just really hoped the liquid wasn’t any body fluids, shuddering at the thought.

Suddenly, a jolt of white hot pain came over his hand, and he gritted his teeth painfully as the figure dug its nails deep into his wrist. He wanted to jolt away from the slowly rising figure, but his feet were rooted to the ground, refusing to move. He couldn’t see the figure’s features or it’s face, only making out that it was about to his nose, and visibly in pain, body hunched over. It reached its other hand towards his face, and he heard it open its mouth in an attempt to say something to him, before suddenly vanishing into thin air, and before the man collapsed to the trail again, right hand throbbing in red, angry pain. He wanted to howl and curse in pain, letting all his rage out in one screech, but he just gritted his teeth and stayed quiet, holding his hand close to him. He felt a large, wet item of clothing fall across his legs, and he jolted to his feet.

“What the hell?” He whispered, holding the cloth as far away as he could, between his index finger and thumb, shaking in pain. The clothing appeared to be some sort of leather jacket, his hand holding it up by it’s sleeve. There was an obvious hole through the back, and the man hoped it wasn’t caused by what he thought it was.

He heard rustling in the woods again, this time farther away, but faster, and repeated quicker.

Then, he heard a voice.

“Find that brat yet?” A male voice shouted, spitting the word ‘brat’ out with such disdain, and even in his drunken state, the man knew he had no choice but to book it out of there, dashing across the gravel with a crunching noise. He was running on animalistic terror, pain, and adrenaline, still holding that jacket but practically clutching it by now, and managed to make it a block and a half down before it all blew out, and the man found himself hunched over the sidewalk, wheezing loudly. He should have worked out more, before all this…

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he gingerly pulled it out of his back pocket, trying to collect himself. The screen showed a picture of a smiling, sort of dopey looking guy, about 20 or so, pale skin, hair covered by a bright green baseball cap, with the words “ELIJAH” in white, across the screen.

“Hello?” The man answered his phone, only to be met with loud, almost overpowering party chatter, and he winced.

“Max, buddy.... Where you at, man?” Elijah slurred into the phone, so close it was nearly uncomfortable. Max groaned and rolled his eyes. “Gotta couple of girls askin’ for ya…” Elijah laughed.

“Listen man…” Max said, darting his eyes around him. “I-I’m not exactly in the mood right now…”

“Aw come on…” Elijah continued, and Max swore he heard footsteps coming towards him. “You’re always so shy with them, man! How do you expect yourself to get a-”

THEY’RE HERE!!

Max’s head throbbed, and he clasped his head in pain. It itched underneath his skin, deep within his skull, and he could hear Elijah asking for him, asking what was wrong with him. The voice in his head was screeching, screaming loud enough that he swore that it could be heard outside of his mind.

THEY’RE HERE, THEY’RE HERE!! THEY’LL KILL US, KILL US, KILL US, KILL US!!

Feeling a sudden second wind, Max ran down the sidewalk, trying desperately to make it to his house before they could get to him, whoever they were. The voice in his head was silent the whole way down, and he had a feeling it was because it was either 1. his anxiety, or 2. some sort of drunken paranoia that came over him. He’d hung up the phone a long time ago, and he could spot his house --- his parents old summer house --- with it’s dark roof and white balcony visible even in the night. Max ran up to the front door, fumbled with the keys for a few panic filled seconds, and slid into his house and locked the door behind him. He leaned against the wall, the room to dark to see anything, and breathed deeply, in and out and in and out until he could feel his breathing slowly begin to regulate itself.

Max walked over to the bathroom, feeling an overwhelming urge to be sick, hoping to just get it over with and pass out on his bed. He flicked the lights on, turning to face himself in the giant mirror on top of the sink. Max looked unkempt, his dark, wavy hair curling around his face and flipping up at the base of his neck. His face was sort of boxy, and he was walking a thin line between stubble and beard, thick but not enough to be considered a real beard. There were bags under his dark round eyes, and his complexion seemed paler than the tan it usually was. His dark t-shirt was sort of ruffled, and his right hand was covered in some sort of red li- oh my ****ing god…!

Max slammed the sink on and washed the blood off of his hand, hoping that he didn’t get someone’s blood all over his house and clothes. Thankfully, most of it was coming off of his hand and draining into the sink, pink swirling down the drain. As he washed his hand off, he noticed a tattoo on his right hand, dark wavy runes written across the top of his hand, towards his knuckles. Max squinted at it, trying to find some way to read it, and noticing that it wasn’t washing off, not even a little bit. Instead of panicking, he just sighed, ran his hands through his messy dark hair, and walked into his bedroom.

It was probably his mind making up things, he reasoned as he slid into bed, having changed into sweatpants. He drank too much, made up things in the forest, or maybe some sort of demon cursed him to hallucinate the events as he walked through the forest. He’d heard of pixies or elves that did something similar, made the forest seem like it lasted for years so they could lead you to your death. It was probably some dumb forest guardian trying to force him out of the park, and the effects would be over by the time that he’d wake up.

He fell asleep, believing that everything would be fine in the morning, that nothing would change.

He was wrong.

 

[roule]

Spoiler: authors note

chapter title from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaWH19qGg4Y

2.

DOUBLE HELIX

Max awoke from a nightmare he couldn’t recall (only managing to remember running and blood) heaving and coughing, with his head pounding in a rhythm that he couldn’t decipher, and he scrambled across the wooden floors, towards the bathroom. He hurled violently into the toilet, bent over and hands clutching the rim of the toilet with white knuckles as the waves of nausea passed through him. After he was finished, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, before looking back at it.

The tattoo was still there, flowing across his hand, the runes taunting him silently. He ran over to the sink and tried to scrub it off, and only made his skin an awful, painful red. Max wanted to scream. It was supposed to be gone! Wasn’t it all just a hallucination caused by a rogue demon? Was everything that happened last night… real? His head pounded again, and he held it in his hands as he gritted his teeth, rocking softly.

Max managed to crawl to his kitchen and get an apple and some cereal in his stomach before popping an aspirin. He should've called out from work, he sighed to himself. Given him some time to recover from his hangover, and what happened last night. His eyes flitted back to the tattoo on his hand again, and he hoped that management wouldn’t be too harsh on him for his sudden new 'tattoo'. Wasn’t like he really could remove it… He flicked the TV in the living room on, and watched as it went to the news, with a red bar at the bottom screen reading “10 DEAD AFTER SHOOTING IN BOSTON”, and Max felt dread set into his stomach, and his eyes widened.

“Police have confirmed that 10 people, including the president of the Demon-Human Relations Association, Jules Hussain, have died as a result of the attack.” The anchor, a somber looking blonde woman, read. “All of the dead were members of the association, and 5 members of the 15 present at the meeting are believed to be missing.”

The screen transitioned to a picture of the 5 missing members, 3 women and 2 men. None of them caught his eye except for a girl, with pale skin and round eyes that had an angular curve to them. Her hair was dark, and she had choppy bangs covering her forehead, but her hair didn’t go past her ears. She was grinning warmly at the camera, showing off her somewhat normal looking but a little pointy teeth, as if the person who was taking the picture was a family member or a friend.

The name under her picture read “Wei-shun Kaouthai”.

“If any of our viewers have any possible information about these five please contact the FBI at this number.” With that, a phone number appeared on screen.

Max couldn’t bear to watch the news anymore, and turned the TV off, and slammed the remote on the wooden coffee table. He’d heard of the DHRA, knew them from their peaceful protesting against discrimination against demons. They’d done nothing to warrant being killed like that! He’d never seen anything about members attacking humans, only wanting peace between the two species. And yet…

Max shook his head softly, dark hair shifting in front of his eyes. Too much for him to think about, and it was too early in the morning. He stood up and walked back into his bedroom, gathering his uniform together, dark dress pants, baby blue shirt, and a white lab coat with a tag on his right breast that read “M. OLESTIEN”. Max slipped into his uniform after walking to the bathroom, and then looked over himself. He looked pretty scruffy, but it didn't matter. He wasn't going to be impressing anyone, not a whole lot of people lived in his little dinky town, far from the cities and seaside resorts of Florida. Just a couple of families who never left Florida and old people from the north who chose to move here because of the heat.

Max grabbed his dark athletic bag containing his cash and a small lunch of an energy bar and water, shucked it over his shoulders and walked through his house, stopping to put on and tie his dark sneakers. He walked out into the muggy heat of the early morning, bright white sun peeking out from the fence, slowly lighting up the sky. Max jumped into his car, a dark colored sturdy car made about 9 years ago, and drove off towards the pharmacy.

When Max reached the grey tiled back room of the pharmacy, with a mini kitchen with a broken microwave and large white fridge, the employees, most of them 20-something fresh college grads like Max, sitting at the dark circular tables were chattering amongst themselves, and Max could decipher their mumbling as he approached.

“Did you hear about…?”

“Yeah, it’s horrible! They…”

“I can't imagine how much…”

Max felt a pang of disgust and shame swirling in the pit of his belly, and he busied himself with putting his bag away. He didn't know exactly why the news in Boston was affecting him so much, but it was. Max didn't really know any demons, almost none of them lived in this part of Florida because of the number of people willing to kill them like ‘the good old days’. Max had grown up with those same people, and hated every single minute of it, hated when they spoke about demons like they were mere cattle. Thankfully, after high school, he never saw those kids again. He didn't miss them.

“Hey-o Max!” A woman exclaimed, and Max escaped his thoughts and turned to face one of his coworkers, a new girl that he was training, Annie, with her dark hair in a bun and red square glasses. She had a round face and an ever present warm smile, and wore a similar uniform to him, but with a grey shirt and tiny metal pins of dog and cat painted in a bright Lisa Frank style under her name tag.

“Hey!” Max responded, smiling the best he could at 8 in the morning. “How’s it going?”

“It's going great!” Annie smiled, before the two of them walked out into the pharmacy, full of clinical white shelving and paper packets containing pill bottles. Annie unlocked the screen covering the counter and pushed it upwards. Max watched from the counter as the other employees filtered into the main building, walking through the shelves of chips and soda towards the front registers, flipping on the lights and unlocking the main sliding door towards the front.

To Max’s relief and boredom, it appeared to be a slow day, and he didn’t have many pills to fill. After filling up the pills he needed to have done, he just sat in his office chair and spun around aimlessly, playing with a comic book figure that some kid left behind, and managed to find its way onto the mess on his desk, full of papers and food wrappers. Annie wasn’t doing anything either, just wiping off her glasses with a light grey cloth as some pop-punk band played in the background (one of those 23 pilots…), before she put her glasses on and blinked over at him with her dark eyes.

“Hey.” She said, and Max looked up. “When did you get the tattoo? On your hand?” Max laughed hollowly and rolled his eyes. He knew he was going to get asked about it eventually…

“Eh…” Max shrugged, not bothering to make up some deep or meaningful lie. “I got drunk and woke up with it.”

“Really?” Annie laughed, looking at him with a smirk. “Didn’t take you for the blackout type.”

“I didn’t either.” Max stretched his arms out, and shivered a little. “It’s probably the weirdest thing I’ve done drunk. Ever.” Annie just laughed, and pulled out her phone. The only noise between them for several minutes was the music playing over the loudspeaker.

“So…” Annie said, looking out over the store, to see only a mother corralling her two kids away from the toy aisle nearby. “Not a whole lot of people here today, huh?”

“Yup…” Max said softly, playing with his hands. “You kinda get used to it.” Max looked up to see the woman and her children approaching their window, and Max quickly rushed over and put a friendly expression on his face. The lady was dressed in a blue t-shirt and jean shorts and had straw blonde hair in a ponytail, thin pink face and baby blue eyes.

“Hello miss! How can we help you?” Max smiled, placing his hands palms down on the table. The woman looked over at him, before narrowing her eyes and turning to Annie and asking for a prescription. As Annie ran towards the back shelves, the woman turned to glare at Max, who tried to smile at her kindly, not nervously. There was a moment of awkward silence as the woman paid for her prescription, not bothering to look at Max, before Annie came back with the pill bottle, smiling cheerfully.

“Thank you.” The lady smiled, grabbing her wallet, before turning to Annie again. “You’re very brave.”

“Huh?” Annie responded, cocking her head in confusion and frowning. “What do you… mean?”

“You’re brave for working with one of them.” She spat, gesturing towards Max with her free hand, before turning away and walking towards the exit, not bothering to look back at them. Max just blinked in confusion before looking over at Annie, who was just as confused, hand covering her mouth.

“You got any ideas why she said that?” Max asked, rubbing his chin absent mindedly. Annie shook her head, her brow furrowed. Max frowned, perturbed by what she said. He should probably let it go, but it seemed to itch painfully within him. He rubbed the base of his nose, and sighed softly. It was all so bizarre…

Knew they’d find me

Max blinked, and turned to look over at Annie. She wasn’t looking at him, plunking away at her phone. Who was that? It sounded like a voice… He couldn’t tell if it was female or male, they’d spoken too quick.

Can’t leave now. I’m… too tired. Guess this is over

“Hello?” Max asked, looking around him for anyone who could be talking to him. Annie was staring now, looking even more confused. “Hello?”

“Max, is something up?” Annie asked, and Max just held his head in his hands.

“I’m… not sure.” Max said, shaking his head softly. “Do you hear anything?”

Annie paused, listening for anything with a concerned look. The radio played in the background, almost silently.

“No.” She said, and Max laughed hollowly.

“Figures.” He sighed, rubbing his face. Annie glanced at him with a pitying look.

“Do you need a break?” Annie asked. “It’s not like we’re going to have anyone coming in…”

Max nodded, and walked to the end of the room, slipping into the small, one stall bathroom for employees. He stopped in front of the dingy looking white sink, looking into the mirror. He looked fine, just a little more scruffy with his beard. He blinked a few times, before sticking his tongue out, before giggling and grinning.

No time

“You again!” Max whispered, trying not to disturb Annie or anyone in the breakroom. The voice was a little bit slower, slurring their words somewhat, as if they were tired. They spoke in a similar voice to the one in his thoughts, which sent a jolt of fear down his spine. Was he hearing things?

What if one of them comes?

“Who are ‘they’?” Max hissed. The voice paused, and didn’t respond for a long while.

Don’t know. They hurt me. Don’t wanna get hurt again. So tired… I’m so tired

Max groaned before turning the faucet on and splashing cold water in his face. This was all so ridiculous! First a drunken bender in a forest, then a mysterious tattoo on his hand, now he was hearing things and customers hated him! Perfect, just perfect…

He’d overcome this, Max told himself as he walked back to his desk, sitting at his desk and smiling at Annie when she looked over. The voices would probably shut up when he stopped responding, and it was just one lady who got didn’t like him. So what? He’d gotten through college, gotten through high school. This was nothing! Just a weird turn of events.

Just a weird turn of events.

 

[roule]

Spoiler: authors note

chapter title is from this

3

I’LL TAKE YOU TO BURN

Wei-shun felt her head spin painfully as she opened her eyes, a headache throbbing deep within her skull, deep behind her eye sockets. Wei-shun glanced around lazily before her eyes focused and she shot up from her sleeping position. She was in a bedroom, not a forest like she expected, a very sloppy and unkempt bedroom but a bedroom nonetheless. Clothes were strewn all over, pants and shirts over a desk chair, and her eyes caught on a large poster on the wall in front of her. It appeared to be of a flying saucer hovering over a forest with the words “I WANT TO BELIEVE” written on the bottom, and she recognized it as the poster from The X-Files. Whoever lived in this room either really like 90s pop culture or The X-Files, Wei-shun notes.

Wei-shun swings her legs out and stands up, swaying somewhat from disuse. Nothing other than her head hurt, so whoever who had saved her hadn’t beaten her or done worse while she was out. She brings up the memory of the person saving her in the woods, mere minutes before she would have likely bled out from her wounds. The people who had caught her had taken turns attacking her. One with a gun, one with an iron dagger. She’d felt the iron sting and burn inside her, so if anything, the dagger would have prevented her organs from healing correctly. And yet, that person managed to save her life. The voice she heard call out to her, thick and a little slurred, sounded like a man’s, and he had that distinct copper smell of a human, but she couldn’t get a glimpse of his face, even with her good eyesight. She needs to find this man, thank him properly, like her father always insisted she do when she was small, telling her it was the ‘Kaouthai way’. She doubts that it was particularly easy to take care of her while she was healing.

She manages to stumble into the living room, past a messy kitchen full of dishes and mugs, and is met with darkness coming from the windows. It’s night, deep night. The digital clock underneath the TV shines out “2:53 AM” at her, and Wei-shun blinks. It’s late. Very late. Wei-shun picks up the remote and turns on the TV, curling up on the couch before scrambling up and feeling her heart free fall into her stomach.
Both of her parents were on the TV, her mother with her dark hair only reaching her chin, eyes visibly red and gleaming with tears. Her father looked dead, eyes hollow and sunken in, and his short hair messy and unkempt. Wei-shun stared at the TV, eyes wide and body subtly shaking. Did they think she died back there?

“Do you think your daughter enjoyed being a member of the DHRA?” The interviewer, a white man with a short, white, haircut asked, and Wei-shun watched her mother wipe away tears, and she changed the channel before she could get an answer. Wei-shun couldn't bear to think about the pain her parents were in, and it was all her fault to boot.

“-uthorities have said than the 5 missing DHRA members are not possible suspects in any investigation.” Another reporter read, this time a blonde woman in a red blouse. “No new bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the James Brown-West building in Boston.”

The camera turned to a live helicopter video of the building where Wei-shun held the meeting, a white classical building made of marble and stone. She remembers walking through the building, with its large rounded ceilings and classical sculpture of nymphs and fairies prancing about, carved onto the walls. Mr. Hussain had told her about these buildings before, acting as a sort of tour guide to the rest of the DHRA members. A huge, blackened chunk of the ceiling was ripped open, exposing the charred interior to the world. Wei-shun knew in an instant that the worst had happened, and an ugly nagging voice whispered that the 5 people mentioned, the 4 others that Mr. Hussain managed to teleport with her, were the only survivors.

The TV changed again to the reporter, and Wei-shun managed to read the ticker on the bottom reading “10 DEAD IN MASS SHOOTING AND EXPLOSION AT DHRA MEETING, 5 OF THE 15 AT THE MEETING REMAIN UNACCOUNTED FOR”.

Wei-shun, in this moment, remembered a quote from a news broadcast of a similar event that she watched on the internet. That people’s worst fears are seldom realized. This was her worst fear, a nagging that traveled with her whenever she had demonstrated with the group, that she was only one attack away from becoming a martyr for her cause. Yosef, the chief of staff, had laughed her anxiety off whenever she talked about it, the older, balding man nudging her ribs and calling her paranoid with a smile. He wasn’t there, thankfully having a family reunion of some sort, but he must’ve felt awful. Wei-shun just felt an overwhelming numbness as the names of the dead appeared on screen. Mr. Hussain. Elizabeth, Mr. Hussain’s secretary and close friend, a peaceful woman who joined because she wanted others to live in harmony. Michel, one of the volunteer guards, always smiling and loyal to the end, the only one that Wei-shun knew couldn’t have lived, as she watched the masked gunmen kill him first as they ran in. Vice President Olivera. Mrs Douglas, who organized all their events. Hannah, a junior representative, like Wei-shun. Jonathan, another junior representative. In fact, almost all the seven junior representatives, except for her, William and Marinette, were dead. All dead. All dead.

Wei-shun caught herself before she took the plunge into self pity. If Mr. Hussain hadn’t teleported her, there was no way she could have saved them or survived. She wasn’t a fighter, and her other form couldn’t do much damage before getting herself killed. She knew that. She had inherited her father’s intellect and curiosity and her mother’s empathy, but not her strength. However, Wei-shun knew what she had to do, and she was sure Mr. Hussain would’ve agreed with her. She had to find the 4 remaining survivors and get them to safety. They had lived, that Wei-shun knew for certain. They’d all darted in opposite directions, every person for themselves. They’d also made it a decent ways away, enough that the two attackers teleported with them couldn’t find them, as they mentioned to her as one of them shot her in the belly. That’s what she could do. All she could do.

Wei-shun walked over to the humans bathroom, intent on washing up and finding said human to talk over her plans with. She needed guidance, or at least someone who could find her body if it all went wrong. She hoped he was nice, at least. So, she walked into the bathroom with pattering feet, looked up at the mirror, and jolted back in shock, almost falling into the shower.

The person reflected in the mirror wasn't Wei-shun. Instead, she was faced with a shirtless man, kind of gangly and with dark hair on the chest and arms, not very muscular but ultimately, not… unattractive. The man in the mirror had a square face covered in thick, dark stubble, with round brown eyes and a tan complexion. His nose was very prominent, and his dark hair was messy and reached to his chin. His mouth hung open slightly, and Wei-shun opened her mouth wide, and watched as the man in the mirror did the same, looking at her rounded canines, compared to the small fangs she usually had in its place. Wei-shun swore she was going crazy right then, that this was all a hallucination made by her grieving mind. She rubbed her hands against her jaw and felt the prickle of stubble over her fingers, and could barely pick up the scent of copper. She wasn't going insane.

Possession (at least of unwilling hosts) was considered to be morally wrong amongst demons and humans, and she’d grown up with constant debate if demons were all evil because of their innate ability to take over and control bodies. Whenever some case of possession and torture of a human came out, the media buzz was so severe that sometimes, she’d just stay home from school instead of facing the backlash. Wei-shun had promised the humans that she wasn't like that, that she couldn't possess anyone. She recited the spell to leave a body under her breath, a spell taught to her by her parents in case of an accident similar to this, closing her eyes and wishing that for once it would work. She felt a slight tug, and then...

Wei-shun buried her head in her hands, feeling her headache erupt again with a vengeance, now scraping from the inside of her skull and burning like hell. She couldn’t leave yet. Her body was still healing from lethal wounds, so she would have to be inside the human’s body for now. It was an accident, all a mistake… She wanted to survive, and she ended up accidentally possessing a human. She just wanted to live! Wei-shun wept into her hands, her sobs coming out lower and more masculine, and very very unfamiliar. Almost everyone she knew was dead, and now she’d forced a human to be with her by taking over his body! How pathetic was she?

Wei-shun cried until it hurt her eyes, curled up on the floor with her head between her knees. By the time she was done crying, her head was fuzzy and dizzy, and she wobbled when she stood up and peered at the mirror again, hoping to see anything but the human she possessed. Well, her mind chirped, at least he’s cute! He wasn’t one of them, and from what she had seen of his house, he seemed like a nice enough guy, if a little nerdy. If you had your body back, wouldn’t you want to have a little fun with him?

Wei-shun was too tired to say anything in disagreement, preferring to walk out to the hallway and snoop around a little. She needed to find out things about the human, things she could use to better know him. It wasn’t like she wanted to torture him, she just wanted to have someone to talk to, and maybe, just maybe, a friend. So, the demon looked through the human’s house, trying her best not to pull everything out and leaving a mess or looking suspicious.

She found out that the human’s name is Maxwell H Olestien, Max for short. He’s 22 years old, so only a year older than Wei-shun. He was born in Florida (where Wei-shun assumed she was now), moving from Miami to some small town called Sunshine Falls. He appeared to live alone, and his parents had moved away and left him the house. Currently, he was attending some college in a different part of Florida, majoring in biomed, and didn’t have any sort of criminal record. He worked at a chain pharmacy in Sunshine Falls as a technician of some sort. Max seemed to like nerdy stuff, judging by the number of Nintendo systems lining the floor by the TV, and the posters around the house, one for Metroid, one for Banjo and Kazooie. Wei-shun was tempted to plug in Super Mario World into his SNES and play a few levels, but she eventually decided not to, worried that Max would notice.

She found her leather jacket in Max’s living room, which she had slung on when the shooting had begun, intending to lead a group out of the building before Mr. Hussain teleported her. The jacket was covered in her blood, now dried out and stained in a somewhat reddish tone when not crusted. A hole, from the knife stabbing her in the back, was torn through the back of her jacket. Max had flung it on the floor and probably was too freaked out to touch it. Wei-shun searched her pockets, finding her wallet, a bloody and wrinkled version of her script of the speech she gave at the beginning of the event, and a picture of her parents. Her ID lanyard and her phone were missing, and she stomach dropped at the realization. If they found either of those things, they could either pass off as Wei-shun and try to hurt her family, or use it to break into the headquarters in New York and massacre people there. She had managed to evade them after they left to try and contact their friends, so they might have not found her stuff yet. However, she didn’t know where the forest she had gotten attacked in was, or how to get there. She could actually barely recall the minutes after she possessed him, only remembered delirious fear and exhaustion, then blackness. But Max did. He was walking through the forest when he saved her. He had the answers she wanted. All she needed to do, was ask.

Wei-shun walked back to the bedroom, laying her unfamiliar body onto an unknown bed, and closed her eyes. She was done for the night, deciding to rest instead of investigating further. She had nothing left to investigate, having found what she’d wanted. Now, she knew that the human was named Max, that he wasn’t one of them, and that he knew where her stuff was. She needed to ask him, with either on her own or with him in control, she needed to find her things. Then, she’d look for the others. That was her goal, and she’ll either complete it, or die trying to.

She hopes she can complete it.

 

[roule]

Spoiler: authors note

chapter title's from this

4

DAY N’ NITE


She woke up in darkness, inky black and all consuming. Wei-shun tries to stand up, but can only manage to get on all fours. She couldn’t see anything, let alone her own body. Is she in her other form? No, she still feels her fingers, if she was in her other form she’d have hooves instead. Am I in the human’s body? She moves her hand down her body and feels the curve of her breasts compared the the flatness of Max’s chest, so no. She now notices that she’s completely naked, which causes her to flush painfully in embarrassment. Nevermind that, did she heal completely? Had she freed the human at last?

I did see the news, yeah… How awful!

That was Max’s voice…! Wei-shun’s head flitted around, looking for him. She saw nothing but darkness. She skittered forwards, trying to find light or the human. The floor was soft and plush, like some sort of carpet, and Wei-shun squeezed it with her hands.

“Hello?” She shouted into the void. It was her own voice, and she relished in hearing it again. “Are you there, Max?”

Demons are like us! They have thoughts, feelings, people they love… They aren’t forces of nature, you know? People shouldn’t kill them like that…

Wei-shun feels touched that he cares about demons and doesn’t irrationally hate them, and therefore, she can trust him. But she’s still confused to where she is. Where he is. She crawls further, searching desperately for him. She needs to tell him about the forest. About the ID. She wants to keep him safe from them, because they’ll probably attack him for "intermixing with the demon race". It wasn’t his fault that she’d accidentally possessed him…

“Max, I need to talk to you!” She hollers, garnering no response. Wei-shun growls angrily, and continues to crawl forwards. Nothing is visible. She can see nothing, no light, no limbs, NOTHING. “I need to tell you something very important!”

She feels pathetic, crawling and screaming out like a trapped animal. It was all so humiliating and frustrating. Couldn’t he at least indulge her with an answer?

I just hope the 5 missing people are alright...

“Max, PLEASE!” She screams, near tears. Frustration is crawling under her skin, burning violently. “I’m alright! I won’t be if you don’t HELP ME!!!”

That one girl’s parents… like her name was Won-shu or whatever… they seemed so devastated by the whole thing… I can’t imagine what they’re going through.

“I’m alive! I’m alive goddamnit!” She’s crying now, bitter tears and snot running down her face. He’s the only one she could talk to. The only one who can listen. But he ISN’T! He’s not listening to her at all, and it’s so unfair! Why can’t he hear her? He’s the only person she has left!

I hope that she isn’t dead. I want one happy thing to come from all this.

“Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT! Why can’t you hear me??” Wei-shun howls, and she’s met with a loud screeching noise, like grating metal. The noise lasts for a minute, and only increases in volume, until it’s the only thing present in her mind. She flinches and shuts her eyes tight, before opening them again.

There’s light. She’s floating above Max’s head, and he appears to be at work, judging by the bright white walls and shelves surrounding them, full of wrinkled paper packets and pill bottles. Max’s head is in his hands, and he’s clutching his hair so tight Wei-shun nearly feels the pain in her scalp herself. Maybe she actually does, they are sharing a body. Max was talking to a person, an older man with a dark beard and round glasses. A little girl is by his side, pink dress, dark hair in pigtails, looking at Max in concern.

“Sorry.” Max says, rubbing his eyes. “You were saying?”

Wei-shun decides not to bug Max until after he’s done talking to this man, who, based on her inference, appears to be one of Max’s old high school teachers. They chat about the weather and school things for 5 minutes, Wei-shun spinning around aimlessly above his head all the while, until the man waves his hand and wishes Max good luck with college. The teacher and his daughter walk away from the desk, and Wei-shun hears the automatic doors open and shut from the front of the pharmacy. Now’s her chance.

“Max.”

Max shoots up in shock, looks around with wide, shaking eyes, before ignoring her, and returning to his work, walking over to his desk and fiddling with the computer on it, trying to connect to the internet. She feels frustration building up in her chest.

“Maxwell.”

Another attempt to ignore her. He looks around briefly, before turning back to the computer. He logs onto a twitter page, probably his own guessing by the profile picture of him posing artsily, like some sort of model or pretentious poet who thought too highly of himself. He scrolls through it aimlessly, checking the notifications. The messages to him seemed to chatter about something that Max had made, possibly some sort of web series, and hadn't done for a long time, judging by their contents mainly consisting begging him to start again. Max groaned, laying back in his chair and rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

“Max, respond to me.”

“Who’s there!” Max shouts, looking all around him. He’s panting now and looking around him, visibly disturbed. “Show yourself!”

“Don’t bother, you won’t see me.”

His hand furl into fists, papers crumpling beneath him. Wei-shun feels a flash of fear, and begins to run her mouth.

“Listen to me Max.” Wei-shun continued, and Max covers his head and moans in agony. “You need to listen, because you’re the only one who can help me, let alone talk to me! I managed to escape with my life this time, but I don’t know how long I can evade them!”

“You need to take me to the forest, so I can find my things and protect my family and friends from my fate. Then we mus-”

“I’m hallucinating.” Max laughs, covering his face and continuing to laugh. Wei-shun growls. “I’m going crazy. This isn’t happening.”

“It is happening, you blistering fool!” Wei-shun shouts, and Max just laughs again. “Do not laugh! This is our lives that are on the line!”

“Yeah right!” Max mocks, and Wei-shun snarls angrily. “Next you’ll be telling me to go to Alabama to hunt down some murderer. Shut up.”

“You know what? Fine.” Wei-shun growls. “I’ll do this on my own time. Alone. Without your help! Figures that I’d be stuck with an imbecile who can’t listen.”

“Figures that my hallucinations would be as annoying as you are!”

She shuts her eyes before she can dwell on any interesting comebacks or the rage of betrayal from the human that she's sharing a body with, and instantly falls asleep. She doesn’t dream of anything, which is honestly better than dreaming, given what she’s seen. Not like she missed dreaming that much. Or at all.

Wei-shun wakes up in Max’s bed, in his body. Her legs feel achy and unused, and it takes her several moments for her to start moving on her hind legs again, holding onto his dresser for support. She walks over to the window, looking over the backyard covered in darkness. It’s her time. She needs to investigate. Find the forest, find her things. Save the others. It's what she must do.

Wei-shun walks to the closet, and is suddenly aware of Max’s… lack of clothes due to the choking heat of his bedroom, possibly because of a broken air conditioning unit. Wei-shun flushes bright pink and tries to ignore her nakedness, leafing through his closet. She decides on some dark blue jeans, boxers and a dark t-shirt, and tries her best to avert her eyes while changing. After some scavenging through his room, she found a pair of round sunglasses, a bright white scarf she wrapped around her neck, and a white cloth flu mask. She’d probably look very stupid wearing all of that in the 80 degree Florida summer, so she just stuck to the mask and sunglasses.

Wei-shun walks out into the hot night, walks out into an idyllic suburb full of posh, almost identical houses. All of them had a patch of green yard out in front, same large dogwood trees. Through the lights, she can see people watching TV or looking at her out the window. She walked through the streets aimlessly, hoping that she finds her way to the woods by just following her feet. It wasn't far, was it? As she walks, she notices a group of kids relaxing on one of the lawns she's passing staring at her as she walks past. She speeds up a little.

Instead of leading her to a forest, her feet lead her across a bridge, a concrete thing with chain-link fences surrounding it, to prevent jumpers probably. Wei-shun peeks through the fence, looking down to see cars speeding down the highway. After walking further, she spots a bunch of bright colored fast food restaurants with lit up signs and strip malls full of boutiques and supermarkets lining the streets, and no forest in sight. She’d went the wrong way.

Wei-shun feels frustration bubble underneath her skin, and she stops and folds her arms across her chest. How foolish of her. The highway should've given it away, that she was walking further into civilization instead of farther from it. She grimaces and rubs her brow, a painful headache boiling within her skull. How much time could she bargain away like this?

However, she still has a chance to gain something from the night, instead of just blowing it off as a failure. Wei-shun walks towards a lit up, retro diner with glittering silver accents and a shining logo reading “THE RED DINER”. Bland name, but a local drinking hole, perhaps. Maybe a few loose tongues that can tell her something new.

So, Wei-shun finds herself sat in a uncomfortable booth, red uncushioned seats and light colored wooden tables. A radio crackles through the mustard colored walls, playing Queen’s greatest hits, and Wei-shun overhears the clatter of stoves and pots and the blabbering of the staff as the food cooks with a sizzle. Occasionally, a younger woman, only around 19 years old, with bobbed dark hair and a bored look, walks past, shoes squeaking on the red linoleum. Wei-shun orders a bacon cheeseburger and an orange soda, not wanting to keep Max up when they do swap out, and in front of her lies a brochure about Sunshine Falls she nabbed from a glass display out front.

The brochure doesn't list much. A mall, a local civil war monument, some beaches nearby, nothing Wei-shun needs to help her further. However, she does find a blurb about a local park for hiking and leisure, called Easly Park. One look at the picture beside the words confirms her suspicions. It's the park. Thank god it wasn't far, but the clock hanging on one of the walls shows 4:30. It's almost daybreak. She feels it's only fair to give daytime to Max, he was the original owner of this body...

She feels a stirring deep inside her mind, almost if something submerged is floating up to the top. From deep in her mind. Deep, deep within...

...Huh?

Wei-shun winces, hearing the sleepy voice of Max in her mind. He needs to go back to sleep, it's best they don't interfere with their business. He doesn't talk further, so she blindly hopes that he's been pulled under by sleep.

Her burger arrives soon after that with a clatter of plates, and she shakes the thoughts off, and begins to eat. It's not bad, the patties juicy and it's not sitting like a lead weight right now. Maybe she'll write them a good Yelp review...

Wait, where am I… ? W-Why can't I move? I can't feel my body! I can't feel anything! What's g-going on?


Wei-shun huffs, placing her burger down on her plate, and glances around her. No one else in sight.

W-Who are you? Why are you controlling my body?! What are you going to do to me?! Why are you doing this to me!? Answer me!

“Go back to sleep.” Wei-shun commands, not loud enough to be overheard. “You need your rest. This body will return to you in the morning.”

N-No! I’ll never bow to… never… ****, I'm so tired… So tired… So…

And that should be the end of his interjections for the night. Wei-shun smiles to herself, before returning to her burger. Tasting food after nearly 3-4 days without any control over herself was almost heavenly, and in a matter of minutes she was done. She chugged her orange soda, before the waitress arrived with the bill. She pays in cash, less easy to for someone to track, her mind reasons, and is about to leave and tear up the receipt before a voice calls out.

“Hey Max!” A female voice calls out, and Wei-shun turns to face a younger woman with long dark hair and red rimmed glasses. She’s wearing a uniform similar to Max’s, so she's one of his co workers, and the name Annie flashes through her mind. A friend. Not one of them. Wei-shun mimes a smile, taking off her mask and sunglasses. “What are you doing up so late?”

“Oh nothing… Just getting a late night snack, got some sort of weird craving for a cheeseburger.” Wei-shun tries her best to mimic Max’s speech patterns. “You work closing today?”

“Oh yeah, just heading here to get some food in me..” Annie laughs, crossing her arms. Her dark eyes crinkle at the corners. “Today I had a group of weirdos 5 minutes before closing. Four men. Dressed in all white suits, like some sort of dystopian novel.”

Them. Wei-shun feels a chill run up her spine, but she tries her best to hide it. please god, tell me they didn't find my things…

“Oh?” Wei-shun feigns confusion. “They say anything weird to you?”

“They asked me if they saw a short haired Chinese woman.” Annie shrugged, and Wei-shun feels an icy jolt of fear. “They didn't have any pictures, just a vague description! I told them that I see tons of people here, and I can't remember anyone like that. They just scoffed at me and left.”

“That's bizarre.” The Thai woman remarks, internally sighing. They didn't have her ID, with an accurate picture of her on the top. They can't use her picture right now. They only have vague descriptions. She can relax for a second. “Sounds suspicious.”

“Yeah.” Annie says, smoothing out her lab jacket with her fingers. “I hope they don't come back… Anyways, it was nice seeing you! See you at work!”

Wei-shun waves, and walks out of the glass doors. She rounds the corner, making sure Annie can't see her, before tearing the paper receipt into small pieces and tossing them into the trash. She stops on the curb to think a little, about the turn of events. They are searching for her, but she knew that already. She’d escaped their grasp, which must’ve humiliated them immensely. But, she now knows that she’s one step ahead. She has a different appearance now, and they are only running on descriptions, unable to use pictures of her because she's all over television. Wei-shun had the upper hand, but she stops herself from gloating in it. If she becomes too confident, she could slip and end up killing the both of them with her foolishness. She needed to be smart, alert and always cautious. All she can do now, however, is go back Max’s house, and prepare.

Wei-shun walks across the parking lot, and heads down the sidewalk. Up ahead, a flicker of orange peeks over the horizon, through the distant trees.

She feels warm.

 

[JX Valentine]

So my first impression is "wow this is like a twisted reverse Birdy the Mighty." But my second impression is this floats my boat. I dunno, I've always had a fondness for everyday geeks getting wrapped up in supernatural shenanigans by way of possession or cursing, which sounds hella specific, but it's more of a thing than one would think.

That isn't, of course, to say you're not original. On the contrary—your premise is so much fun because you have one big twist: Wei-shun actually is a good guy. I mean, so is Birdy if we do make that comparison, and so are a number of other characters, but when you're dealing with demons, the chances of that being a thing are 50/50. But more importantly, she is according to her society, which is this fascinating, Buffy-esque balance of humans and demons. I love the entire "possession is a taboo for both sides" thing especially because of this society. It's almost an implication of a sharp divide between the two, where demons are almost treated as inferior, despite actually wielding quite a bit of power. (Max's conversation with his former schoolteacher only reinforces this, to be honest, what with Max arguing that demons aren't worth killing. On the other hand, that might also be a metaphor for racism in that maybe that schoolteacher is more or less a vocal minority, not unlike how the tiny slivers of vocally racist folks are not representations of the overall whole of a people. Idk, I get the feeling that the longer you go, the more interactions you'll let us see to help us navigate that part.) That and, of course, it says a lot about the morality of demons to even have taboos like "don't mess with the humans."

But of course, beyond that, I love Wei-shun in general. She's such a refreshing change from most demonic characters in that she's straightforward, passionate about an actually good cause, and also? She actually does want to work with Max. Kinda. Sorta. Like, she's not being an enigmatic *** or launching him into trouble (just yet). Rather, she actually does value his input and want his help, and it's only when she doesn't get it that she takes matters into her own hands ... which, honestly, is hella fair, given the gravity of her situation.

As for Max ... well, lol, we'll see how long he lasts being the standoffish everyman who only wants to believe Wei-shun is a hallucination. The next chapter will be fun, I'm sure. ;D