Hallowed Kaline (1) (MANUSCRIPT)

Issue # 22 Grandfather, Pt. 2

        Thomas Kaline, his distended stomach dancing underneath his shirt, coughed up a mucous-filled roar. "I don't like to think about it, though. Max, I hope you'll understand." 

       "But, grandpa, why? Why all the-" 
       "Because I said so! And that better be a good a reason as any, damn it! I don't want to talk about this anymore." 
        Max receded into his chair. "O- Okay." Looking away, the young hunter crossed his arms. What the hell really happened between Hosanna and my grandpa?  

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      Iona's eyes lowered. Maximus will be consumed, won't he?
      "Stop it! No! No, no, no. Not tidy. Not very tidy at all!" Nahum de'Navra suddenly started to put his hands over his head. "Happy hands, clean hands! Happy hands, clean hands! Clean. Tidy. Nice. Happy thoughts. CLEAN! TIDY!" 
       "What the?" Iona jumped. 
       Ashka nodded as he shuffled a deck of playing cards. "Oh. It seems the 'little boy' has come out to play." 
       The monochrome tuxedo and bowl-cut blue hair which made up the well-kept look of Nahum suddenly exploded into a young boy with matted hair and a red shirt. "Oh man!" The little boy continued to look through the binocular's in place of the original Nahum. "That's a nice house. I wonder who lives there." 
       Ashka raised an eyebrow. "Hause-Nahum didn't tell you?" 

      The young boy looked away from the binoculars at Ashka and sneezed, a long booger hanging out of his nose. "That piece of crap ol' geezer doesn't ever tell me anything! He's a big stinkin' doo-doo-head is wha' he is!" 
       Ashka nodded, looking at the backs of his cards. "Right, right. A 'doo-doo-head'. I'll remember that. And this, dear Iona, is the Ace of Clubs." Lifting up a card which had been face-down, the top-hatted de'Navra showed his brethren a card. 
      "Whoa! It is." Iona's eyes widened. 
      "Your tricks are always so cool, Ashguh." The childish Nahum rolled around in the grass. 
      Ashka ignored all outside noises as he began to fiddle with a pair of dice. 
      "Shounen-Nahum, why do you come out at this time of night?" Zarkadda turned his head to the side and crossed his arms. 
      "Well, the other Nahum is a real dick so I try to mess with him every now and again. I wanna experience this body, too!" 
       Zarkadda blinked once. "I see. Why don't you and Hause-Nahum get along very well?" 
      "Zarkadda, don't we all already know why?" Iona furrowed her brow. 
      "Sh. I know, but I want to hear it from the boy." Zarkadda waved Iona down. 
       "Well, I don't really know. He's a big bully. He's always been a bully to me. He puts on this fake-ass face where he's so nice to everybody except me! And I don't know what I did. Ever since the 'incident' where this 'Nahum' split into two, he's always hated me." Shounen-Nahum then began to cry. 
       Iona frowned. "Yeah." 
       "Well, it is in our best interest that you two get along. We can't just have you going around and invading each others' bodies all willy-nilly, you know?" Zarkadda smiled. "Come on. You two need to kiss and make up, don't you agree?" 
      "Well, you tell him that, Zarkky!" The childish Nahum kicked the dirt behind the bush. 
      Zarkadda lowered his head and giggled. "Right. Zarkky. My favorite nickname, honestly." Shaking his head, the tan man looked up to Max's house. It won't be long now before I can be next to you again, Hosanna. And we can bring about the Flood which almost destroyed all of us all those years ago. And you are going to help me. Even though it appears you have fraternized with these... humans. 

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       "Well, I guess the one happy thing about all this is that Titanium-Corps is now open for business once again." Max smiled, sitting in his big blue swivel chair. I'm glad Headmaster decided to open it back up. Let's hope nothing weird happens for a while. Ha. I probably just jinxed myself, didn't I?
        "I'm glad to hear that, Max. I'm sorry, but, I'm just not willing enough to talk about... this old Hosanna friend of mine." Thomas Kaline rubbed the back of his head. Coughing into a fist, tears flew out of his eyes. Putting a hand to his back, the old man walked slowly out of Max's room. "Dinner will be ready soon, by the way." 
       His long red hair falling in front of his eyes, Max blew it out with a whistle. "Got it, gramps." Sighing, the young hunter turned on some music and took a deep breath. This week really was intense. I just can't wait to have things get back to normal at school.  

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END OF ARC 2