Returning to the Fold

Arthur undid the chain on the door pulling it away leaving his form to be basked in the sickly green haze of the afternoon. The man's antennae stretched outside of the frame scanning the area. Two of his eyes darted for the alley the others hid within. The simplicity of a cough gave them away. "All ya lookin' for that brat, Kage? Bugger been 'way for a few days." 

"Are you sure? One of us is able to- erm… track people and he said Kage would be in this area soon." 

The many eyes narrowed to a thin squint measuring the truth in the statement. "If so, he hasn't come yet." Sizing the child down then doing the same to the three others, Arthur shifted his feet in hesitation. "You can stay if ya want but I don-" His mouth fell agape ending the very idea conjured prior. 

"By God Almighty."

Arthur was interrupted by his own thought, for a sight gripped him in a chilly embrace that eroded his rationality. If the man had not experienced the breath of Gan punctuating his words, then he would have surely imagined this as a nightmare. However, he was denied this excuse. 

The boy curiously followed the man's stare which fell far past his visage. It crept along the torn tiles of tarred road then up the descending hill decorated by rundown shops with the occasional bright light echoing life in the forgotten district. Finally, the source of apprehension was found, but he was the latest to realize the importance of the source. Claire already maintained the lead, being furthest ahead of the others in her sprint to reach the figure shakily marching down the embankment. 

This person was near nakedness if not for his trousers, leather gloves, then gashed boots, which appeared to have entered a blender before being worn. His once flowing locks of raven black hair, that shimmered with a gallant silkiness, were in clumps stuck together. Trodden, his mane had been, by days of rain without shower. Eyes, vast as the ocean able to perceive beyond a world known by the others, sunken lower in a depressed pool of bloody muck. Scars only recently unveiled were covered by the extreme of any source. A source that caked the person's chest falling in streaks to his legs. 

Only then when Gan spotted the difference in coloration between the amassed scars and the other did he become as deathly pale as the man to his back. A fleshy crawl of bumps perused his body, terrifying his heart. 

Claire's drawn back picaresque hair bounced with every jovial leap she took toward Kage. It was an indescribable feeling having been separated for so long. Even if he didn't reciprocate her feelings, she was content remaining nearby, able to survey his growth. 

Maybe later she could try again, do it all over again as well as explain herself better. Ensure there was no reason for him to say "no". Then happiness shall control her. She would feel love and dance with it along with him by her side. 

She would be allowed to prance to his tune encompassed by a freedom unfounded. The rest would no longer matter so long as this feeling never left her again. When Kage no longer could be seen, that pit of despair reopened within her gutter. It reminded her of the scar across her face, the raised fist as well as the smoky rooms tinted by the mold. Left alone on dewy nights under a rag with little wherewithal for anything better. 

For months this emotion took her making her forget all about practicing, growing, overcoming the purpose of her past. She was sure the others understood this pit of sadness for they expressed it in their every action. A steady slowness persisted their discussions which soon became mere gestures rather than conversation. Kage was the centerpiece, even if what Isaiah said was true, about how he manipulated them for some personal satisfaction, then that's fine. He brought them all together, he gave her a purpose that had never been clearer. Finally, they could be together again. She would restart only to start from the beginning over and over until regrets were strewn thin, without memory. 

No more regrets, no more pausing, no more mistakes. 

Even then, that did not matter because as long as they were all together then things would return to normal. Soon Jacob and Kage would get over their quarrel, Gan would stop his tirade and Isaiah would meekly keep to himself. Normal as things could possibly be in this era.

Her grandiose ideas died on the tip of her tongue just as she came face to face with the vessel puppeteering Kage's body. The wobble of his chin stated all that was unsaid. 

They would never return to this fantasized "normal" she, as well as the others, desired. 

A fantasy that died in a blood curdling scream of agony. The same which resulted in the crimson canvas that plastered itself along Kage's body, dripping in coagulating dark slime from the tips of his fingernails. 

Her tuft of hair ceased its bouncing mere feet from the blood bathed boy. Her icy breath came in choked gasps penetrated through the gaps in her hands that shielded the gape of her mouth. Wheezing sips of air suffocated her lungs. 

In Claire's daze, Kage finally comprehended the person in front of him. Raising a stained hand, he passed it through her unkempt strands of hair that undid themselves from the tight wound of the band. His other soon followed, this time cupping her chin between his index and thumb dipping the tip of her pointed end with a spot of red. 

Despite the uncertainty of his condition, Kage smiled. For once, Claire recognized that this was Kage's true smile. One of warmth permeated by the flowing whip of cherry blossoms. It intoxicated the brain while it forced its way into cupping the soul with its generosity. A generosity that could be malformed into a choking grasp at the drop of a pin. The creases to his lips symmetrically persisted to the high set cheekbones that angled his face into a diamond's lower half. Those gaunt angles bore a hollow flaming desire that sought something worthy of the taken madness. Sparks of madness encased themselves in his burnt flesh winking to her as a call for companionship. 

The boy's dried chap lips, plump in their circumference, opened in tight whispers, "You feel so real. So beautiful, just as I remember." Claire could not avoid the touch, nor did she wish to. She had already been ensnared by the eldritch pools of his irises; there was no more he could do unto her. 

"Perhaps you are real. Then… that would make this reality." His sentence ended in an echoing rattle of breath buckling his legs beneath himself. Falling backwards headfirst to the pavement he nearly scraped the ground spilling the sacred fluid of his cranium on its surface. Yet, in half a moment, Claire collapsed beside him to protect his skull, placing it into her lap. 

The patter of footsteps caught to their position. Claire turned toward them, tears streaming down her cheeks, mascara accompanying the rivers. Jacob and Isaiah looked on in disbelief at their friend with a sole plea to bring them to reality. 

"Please… help me!" Cried Claire as she could not find the strength to lift Kage's body. 

Remaining the sole person away from the huddled grouping, Gan stared with a piercing glare. His face grew taught at the touch she displaced unto Kage. The inability for disgust nor apprehension in her movements. She was his yet actions proved otherwise. 

Not a soul stood to bear witness of the parasite worming its way through the perception of their 'friend'.