Chapter 10

The next morning seemed brighter than usual as Laiten opened his eyes to the chitter of birds flying past his window happily, with a light sigh he slowly rose from his bed pulling his midnight black blanket off his body he sat rubbing his head slightly before the events of the evening before struck him like a partially forgotten dream, forgetting his sleepiness Laiten rushed out of his room eager to see if everything had been a dream, he hurriedly pried his grandfathers room open his dark eyes searching the room, upon seeing the room empty his eager expression fell taking it that he had dreamed it all.

"Boy, I say why were you running so much i heard you from downstairs I had to drop the fishcakes" Laiten whipped around almost immediately his expression softening at the sight of the old man.

"you- you're alive" he muttered earning a hard odd look from his grandfather. 

"boy are you still sleeping wake up so you can go to school," his grandfather says going back to the kitchen and continuing with his fish cakes, on the other hand, Laiten returned to his room feeling relieved and happy but in the back of his mind he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong, like something was so wrong but he couldn't place his finger on it, it was like a vivid dream he remembered but didn't remember.

After a breakfast consisting of fish cakes and bread, Laiten headed to school with a light grin playing on his face.

"Buddy hey whoa who got you smiling like that" asks Killian who joins Laiten draping his hand lazily over his shoulder.

"Nothing, nothing I'm just uh, happy that it's a Friday" replies Laiten.

"you and me both i can't wait to play some video games," says Killian with a light sigh of relief.

"yeah.....hey how about you come to my place tomorrow we can play a couple of games and have fishcakes too" Laiten suggests looking at Killian.

"All alright that sounds great i didn't know you finally learned how to make fish cakes, guess your old man left some tips behind huh" Laitens expression morphs into slight confusion at Killian's words.

"hey....what do you mean by that" asks Laiten quietly.

"Well I mean you always brought them to school but after, y'know the incident you stopped bringing 'em because they reminded you of him, anyway come on school is about to start," says Killian jogging into the gates leaving a confused Laiten behind.

"yeah.....yeah school" he mutters slightly dazed as he walks through the gates heading to his class.

Throughout the day Laiten found it impossible to focus, not after his conversation with Killian, the way Killian spoke made it all seem like his grandfather passed away as he had thought but he was there, in the apartment he didn't dream it he was sure, he even touched him so-

"Laiten dude!"

"hmm? huh? What is it" replies Laiten a little taken aback when he sees his entire class snickering while staring at me.

"do you mind sharing what you were thinking about?" Laiten faces the teacher with a sheepish expression

"uh I'm sorry sir I just zoned out a little," he says with an apologetic look.

"well now I didn't think Macabre was such a boring tale," says the elderly teacher with a mocking expression lingering on his face, Laiten lowered his head feeling quite embarrassed, at this point he would've preferred the Faerie as the teacher...the faerie it was still engrained in his memory, thinking about it now everything couldn't have been a dream it wouldn't make any sense to remember it this well even if it were a Lucid dream it wouldn't be this clear. At the end of the school day without waiting to walk home with his friend as usual, Laiten Dashed home with multiple thoughts running through his mind as he opened the apartment door hit with the smell of ramen.

"oh you're home how was school boy that was a question why aren't you answering" Laiten stood at the door staring at the elderly man peeking at him from the kitchen with a grin on his face as he welcomed him home like he always would.

"am I crazy....you-you're here and alive it's not like I dreamed of you passing away," says Laiten as he closes the apartment behind him.

"Passed Away I'll pass on that dream, that was a pun why aren't you laughing," says his grandfather as he disappears back into the kitchen 

"what are you doing" asks Laiten trying to ignore the swirling doubt and questions in the pit of his very being and focusing on the now.

"Making Ramen, of course, nothing goes as Hard as a good plate of Ramen and chicken soup" Laiten pauses glancing at the kitchen door with a raised brow.

"Grandpa...you don't like chicken soup, you always say you hate the flavor of the chicken in the soup" It goes silent for a while as he doesn't hear any sounds from the kitchen.

Grandpa?"

"I made it for you you can't chicken out on a meal like this that was a pun boy why aren't you laughing" replies his grandfather from the kitchen after a relatively long pause

"ah right okay, I like chicken soup anyway uh thanks for cooking," says Laiten heading to his room to get changed out of his uniform, not before giving a wary look to the kitchen before disappearing into his bedroom.

Saturday morning was quite uneventful as it mainly contained watching TV and having breakfast with his Grandfather but eventually, Killian arrived for their video game session.

"hey dude I'm here!" Laiten sighs shaking his head

"I know you can just knock to let me know you're here you don't have to shout at the top of your lungs," says Laiten as he lets Killian into the apartment.

"Well, I'm too special to be touching people's doors ugh" he replies making himself at home as Laiten gets the game they would be playing.

"All alright let's get this going, hey where are those fish cakes you promised" asks Killian.

"oh yeah lemme get my grandpa says Laiten as he calls the elderly man out of the kitchen bringing him to the living room.

"you remember my friend Killian right?" says Laiten pointing to Killian who looked at him like a weirdo while his grandfather gave no reply.

"dude.. are you doing alright?" asks Killian with a look of concern on his face.

"huh? What does...what does that mean?" asks Laiten 

"there's no one there, your granddad died a while ago".