6/14/16

"Are you serious?" Mon asked.

"Of course."

"Yeah but... nothing happened yesterday," Mon reasoned, "You really want to stay up?"

"I stay awake anyways," Anri replied. "I probably won't get anything; I fell asleep yesterday."

Mon conceded with a sigh.

"C'mon, just go to to sleep."

"Fine."

Mon lied down beside Charles and Anri just slipped an earbud in one ear and watched the sky, beguiled once again by the moon.  

Eventually he heard deep, soft breaths beside him. He plucked his earbud out and listened for a while. Soon enough his eyes grew very heavy and he found himself resting them.

"You know what... maybe I'm just crazy," he whispered.

He closed his eyes for a few heartbeats, then quickly pried them open. His eyes fluttered to a close the next moment and he couldn't open them. 

Soon his breaths were like theirs: soft whispers in dreams right behind their eyes.

*****

Anri awoke to the sound of shuffling. It sounded like someone was putting their clothes on. He groaned, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Is it morning already?" he asked sleepily.

There was no response, save for that strange fidgeting sound. After a minute he unburied his face from the crook of his arm and looked up.

Mon sat up and was fumbling with the mosquito dome.

Anri gasped, digging out his phone from under his pillow and began to record.

"Mon, are you awake?" he asked after a long breath.

He didn't even acknowledge him; instead Mon managed to open the dome and tumbled out. Anri checked his phone and saw it was too dark to catch much, yet the unmistakable silhouette of Mon was visible against the dim streetlight behind their curtains.

Anri was frozen as the Mon put his feet into his slippers and clumsily stood up, swaying ever so slightly. Then Mon stopped and stared at him with his cloudy doe eyes.

"You want to take me somewhere, dont you?" Anri asked softly.

Mon didn't reply and continued to glare at him. The hairs of the back of Anri's neck rose as he looked back. Then, very slowly, Mon began to walk around the bed to the door.

"Fuck..." Anri panted, wanting to shake Charles awake. Even so, an unspeakable curiosity whelmed the underlying fear that lanced through his body. Thus, he got out and put on his slippers before following Mon to the door.

Mon bumped his head gently against the door a few times, as though he didn't know it was there.

"Sorry," Anri whispered, turning the knob, and pulling the door inwards.

The living room beyond was shrouded by darkness, though moonlight poured into the room from the large windows at the far end. Immediately, Mon began walking forward—headfirst, as though his body was just an afterthought—and Anri resisted the urge to pull him back into the room.

Anri squinted, staring at the whatever Mon was looking at in the darkness. He couldn't quite seeing anything until—

"What is that...?" Anri muttered, taking a few steps forward.

Whatever it was moved.

Chills lanced through Anri's back and his heartbeat began to drum. There was definitely something there on the right side of the room, an oblong of darkness that huddled in the room's corner.

"Aunt?" Anri called in a weak voice. There was no response.

It was some strange woman, was larger so than any should be, hanging in the corner of the room against the wall with her back facing them. She was bundled in grey cloths, with her face obscured. Anri could hear her crying softly, though,
and saw her shoulders tremble.

His fear reached its peak.

"Mon..." he whispered.

The old lady very slowly began to turn away from the wall.

"Mon," he cried. "Please wake up!"

By now, the old lady had turned to face him.

Anri's lips parted with horror, and he took a few ungainly steps backwards. "What are you?" he breathed.

She rose a black, withered hand and Mon began to rise behind him.

His doe eyes were comppletely white now, as though he was blind, and an old woman's voice spilled from his lips.

"͚͇͕͓͍͘I̜͎͇̱ ̭̮͚͕͙̠̦á̭̪̬͈m͞ ̲̣͉̖͞t̛͔̗̫̫h̟̯̯̭ḛ̜̝̟̭̀ ̩̦d̛r̢̦͚̗e̛a̩̯m̦̭ͅ ͝e҉̯͉a͎̘͖̳̥t͈e̲̼̕r̸̮͈̲͇.̳̥͘"̞̳̗̱̹