Fallwood Paranormal Society

The Old Record Store

CW: depiction and description of a dead mutilated animal (an opossum to be exact and it really isn't too graphic imo but just adding this here just in case that is too much for you)

Cooper gets out of bed and puts on his binder, still shaken by that vision. Cooper walks over to the mirror with the cat following him. He stares at himself, his eyes heavy, hair disheveled, he touches the mirror, after everything yesterday afternoon and last night, nothing feels real and he needs to talk to someone about it. Cooper looks to his right and sees the cat next to him. When he actually processed the cat being there he kinda jumped out of surprise.
"Shit, forgot you were here." Cooper said. The cat just looked at him and meowed. "I should start getting ready for school now." Cooper said and after saying that he gathered his clothes and went through his morning routine. After finishing his routine, he goes to leave for school on his bike. Cooper chooses to go a different way to avoid the Perez house, it may take longer but he doesn't want to go past that house again. He makes it to school right before the bell rings, that only leaves enough time to lock up his bike, it doesn't matter though, he can meet with his friends at lunch. The bell rings and Cooper starts a new day at school.

This was the first day Cooper was actually glad to go to school, he didn't hate school but he would always rather be home, but after Monday, school is an escape for him. Lunch came and Cooper got his food and went to his group's table. Sitting there was only Cooper, Casey, and Daniel. By the time Cooper sat at the table, Casey and Daniel were already in a conversation.
"So yeah, that's why I like her. I wonder if she likes me the same way." Casey was saying to Daniel, who was nodding their head in understanding. Cooper sits down and Casey turns to him. "Hey Cooper!" Casey takes one look at Cooper and notices how shaken he is. "Jeez, what happened to you?" Casey said in heavy concern.
"A lot." Cooper responded. "We can talk about it later, I just want to catch up and eat." Cooper explained rubbing his head.
"Well Cooper, I think it's more important we, as your friends know what's going on." Casey smiles and touches Cooper's hand. Cooper looks at Casey making eye contact.
"If you are still that curious, all I will say is that I just had a long night last night." Cooper smiles back, weakly. "We can go into details later, okay?"
"Okay, sure thing Cooper." Casey responds.
"So, why were you guys here already, don't we normally get lunch together in line?" Cooper asks, changing the subject. 
"Oh, we just had lunch from home. Nothing too special." Daniel said, taking a bite out of their sandwich.
"Hm, okay, well what do you guys have?"
"Well, I have a sandwich and some chips I prepared last night because I had time to make myself lunch." Daniel responded again.
"I just have some leftover takeout my mom is making me finish, though I don't mind, it's not everyday you get to eat chow mein at school." Casey said, eating some chow mein with a plastic fork from a plastic container.
"Cool cool cool, could I by chance have some?" Cooper asks, in a 'pwetty pwease' kind of way.
"No." Both Daniel and Casey say in almost unison but in the same strict tone staring at Cooper.
"Damn okay, no need to be rude about it." Cooper responded. Cooper then starts eating his cafeteria food, it isn't the worst thing ever but he would rather have what his friends are having. When Cooper finishes eating the bell rings, resuming class. Before parting ways to their classes, Casey stops Cooper and puts her hand on his shoulder.
"Hey Cooper, do you want to hang out at the record store? It's been awhile since we have been there and I think it would be good for you. I'm just looking out for you." Casey smiles at Cooper. Cooper looks back at her and thinks for a second.
"Yeah sure, that sounds nice." Cooper then leaves for the rest of classes.

The rest of the school day passes without incident. Cooper unlocks his bike and quickly texts his mom about him going to the record store. Cooper hasn't been there in a while like how Casey stated and it will be nice to talk to his friends Janie and Robin again. Cooper again goes the long way to avoid the Perez house and after going a bit past his house he goes south to go downtown. He is surprised he even remembers the way to downtown but he was able to make his way to the bridge that is over the creek. Cooper stopped riding his bike and pulled over the side of the bridge to admire the view. At this hour the sunlight was at the perfect angle and color, beaming through the orange leaves, the calm stream down below, it's water shimmering by the sunlight, the frog's croak and songbird's chirps coming together to wrap up this majestic scene with a calming harmony of nature, the warm memories of his childhood, exploring this creek flood back to him. Cooper spent so long staring at this scene that he almost forgot why he was there, to meet up with his friends in the downtown area. Cooper spends a teeny tiny bit longer staring at the creek to remember it in a way a phone photo couldn't, though he still took an actual picture because it was just that beautiful. As Cooper grabs his bike to continue his way downtown, he sees something he somehow never noticed until now. It was a decently large Virginia Opossum laying on its back, fur matted, and head gone. Where it's head was is just a gaping red, fleshy void, strangely though, there was no blood left over from what happened to it, no trail from the car that probably ran it over. Cooper looked at it and frowned slightly, which makes sense, it was a pretty sad sight to see, such a little creature's life being cut short like that.
"Poor thing..." Cooper says to himself. Cooper leans his bike on the left end of the bridge and goes to find a stick to move the opossum out of the way, it will be a busy bridge soon. Cooper quickly finds a stick that looks large enough to support the weight of an opossum and moves the opossum to the sidewalk on the bridge. Before finally leaving the bridge, he gives the opossum a quick moment of silence before leaving. After he left, a shadowy, oily goop with a single eye poured out of the opossum. The thing peeks up to look around and slithers completely out of the opossum and drops down into the creek below.