"How the hell am I supposed to understand that? I'm too dumb for this." I said as Dominique, otherwise known as DJ, tried showing me the right answer on the stupid math homework. The bumpiness of the bus didn't help at all either as I could hardly even focus on the paper. Hell, why even do this now? I can just do it later at home. DJ knew I wouldn't though, not content on letting it off that easily. Though tomorrow was Friday so they wouldn't check the homework until the next week. Looking at DJ with a stern look, I said, "How about a deal, I'll do this tonight with the checkbook and I'll be nicer tomorrow?"
He thought for a few seconds with his head raised up, obviously showing how strong his jaw was with the weirdly long hair seemingly gripping it, before looking back down at me and responding, "That's a definite no." I could only sigh again before he continued by saying, "If you would just focus for two minutes, you would understand this concept more."
Before he could continue on talking to me about this lame homework, a kid in the back looked at me before asking, "Are you a girl?" It's been a while since I've been called that, but it isn't that big of a problem. Yeah, it irritates me but it isn't the end of the world if I'm called a girl.
Looking at him, I said, "I'm female, but I'm a guy." His face, which was full of confusion, started at me.
He didn't seem to have a clue at first before DJ stepped in and clarified, "He's transgender. So they, them is preferred but he, his, and him can work if you can't wrap that around your impudent brain." Defensive like always and sometimes coming off like an asshole, that's how DJ dealt with people who questioned who I was. I didn't mind as it was nice to have someone tell them instead of me, who they hardly even listen to.
Because of this random dude, DJ didn't have time to teach me anything, which is a good thing. Before I knew it, the bus driver called both of our names to hurry up, waving us to go faster as DJ had a shocked expression on his face. Me, on the other hand, I was hiding a small smile as I gleefully got up and walked to the front of the bus. DJ trailed behind with disappointment in every step all the way until we were outside. This time, I won.
While walking home through the rickety, and yet, nicely painted houses, all I could focus on was how dimly lit the sidewalk was. This city is probably never going to fix it, but still, it's not a good sight when just looking down the street looks like a Hitchcock film. DJ was here to act all valiant too without really showing it, an adorable sight to notice. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" DJ said as I couldn't help but smile through the harmless crime I committed.
"You caught me. What are you going to do?" I said with the smile still spread across my face.
DJ quickly closed the distance between us as he said, "You really want to know- ". Before he could finish, the sound of a cat yowling caught our attention as we looked over, only to see a small gap between two houses. It was like an alleyway except fences were the only things acting like a wall. Within the weird alleyway was a large empty dumpster with glass camouflaging a strange object on the ground.
I was about to just walk over to it before DJ stopped me, pointing me to the glass and how it covered the entire ground as if someone just threw a pack of beers. Some of them even blended in with the gravel, the streetlight a few feet away showing the reflection of the light. Carefully, he walked over, stepping where he could so that the glass wouldn't stick in his shoes as he finally grabbed it.
His body was covering the entire thing from view at that moment, making it hard for me to stay patient as he just stood there staring at it. If it wasn't for me yelling out his name, he probably would've stayed like that for a few more minutes, turning around and walking back over to me. In his hand was a weird jewel or crystal, the dim light didn't make it easy to really see it. I didn't even know what colour it was, it could've been red to brown or even blue.
"Isn't this so strange, a ruby cut this perfectly. And the edges, they're smoothed down and symmetrical. Only looking at one side, there's two pairs of parallel polygon shapes that form a normal square in the center. It's exactly mirrored to the other side too." DJ said but most of it went over my head as I just stopped paying attention half-way through.
"Yeah, great, but can I see it now with my own eyes?" I said before he apologized and handed it over. He was right too, it was beautiful to look at, and almost hypnotizing to look at. There was something else too, it looked as if it began to glow if I strained my eyes to look at the ruby. I don't know how I managed to see it in the darkness but I didn't care about that, just thinking about how I've never seen something like this. DJ must have noticed my infatuation with this ruby as he weakly padded on my back to move.
We continued to walk down the street toward my house before arriving at a fork in the road. This is where we part ways, except for those few days that we just hang out in his room, waving him goodbye with the ruby still in my hands. I don't know what it was about this thing, I just didn't want to let it go. Hell, I might just lose it if I put the ruby down somewhere. My 'home' was the same as it always was, suffocating and painful. My caretaker in the house on her phone like always, ignoring me without any care for her own child.
The few days that she did notice me was just to scold me or drag me to a store far off. We didn't have a car either, so a trip to the Dollar Captain would take hours out of my day. So maybe her ignoring me could be seen as one of the good days. It didn't really seem like that to me in my eyes as a kid isn't supposed to live like this, having to survive on their own. Another day of noodles, for the third day in a row? Probably not tonight, I was too tired after having to deal with JD's strange antics. He wasn't a bad guy, just was another weirdo like London but still nice to hang out with.
He wasn't easy to talk to, he was just too similar to me in that way. I didn't really understand why, he had a good life with two amazing parents that everyone liked. He wasn't barely surviving in poverty, so why did he act so conceited like me? I have a reason but he doesn't. God, I need to stop thinking, it's starting to hurt my brain. I'm already feeling the effects of being alone, I might as well just close my eyes and dream of something better than this life.
Eerie surroundings were now all around me. Broken furniture but not like they were torn or thrown around. No, they just looked abandoned with dust covering all of them. It's hard to describe perfectly as this place seemed so familiar, yet I didn't have a single clue at where I was. Just a few moments ago, I was sleeping in my bed and now here I am. Was this a dream? But I never had a dream this realistic, putting the palm of my hand on a couch that stood next to me on its side.
Whoever's house this is, they must've been packing to leave or maybe they just died. I know of some houses near where DJ lives that are just abandoned because an old person had a heart attack. As my hand moved around the still dust, I could see that the furniture was actually gorgeous underneath. I needed to get out of this small house though. Who knows, maybe I was kidnapped and need to escape before they realize I'm awake. I mean, who would check a house like this for a random insignificant person like myself.
Slowly, I walked over to the front door as it seemed like I was standing in the living room, and looked through the door only to see... nothing. There were houses or buildings every now and then but they looked abandoned as well. It seemed like we were floating through space too, but somehow staying together and not heading into any direction, just hovering about. Suddenly, the sound of a cat yowling in the house drew my attention. I couldn't tell where it was coming from though as this house seemed like it was only one floor, yet the cat yowled above and below me. If I turned my head to face the door, it sounded like it was behind me.
Was it because this house was so old? Wait what the hell, why am I accepting that I'm in a house that's in space with a random cat? This really must be a dream now, so why not just go with the flow? Find the cat and become comfortable here until I wake up in reality. Walking back through the living room and into another that looked like a kitchen, I couldn't help but think about DJ and how he talked about how our minds are fragile but at the same time on whole other level.
Like it can break with a lot of stress but can fully heal from a car crash if you're young enough. Also, our moods and body are affected by the brain, so why is mine so broken? Side-tracking again, I always come back to that point. Before I could finish my thought, the sound of the cat abruptly stopped as I turned around to see a large monster of some kind. It was obviously a fox, with light red fur and the snout of an animal like that. The size of it wasn't normal too as it was almost as large as me.
Actually no, it was the size of a dining table, just the height of it was pretty much the same. What really drew my attention was the tail, it had more than one, but I couldn't tell the exact amount. It could be three, or maybe twenty-seven, I just couldn't tell. I didn't have time to analyze every single little thing as different parts of the fox thing lunged at me. Its large claws swiped at where I just stood, barely ducking as the other paw swung. Wait, it's paw... It wasn't a fox paw, no, it was more like a monkey's paw.
There was nowhere to back up or dodge as I couldn't get up in time, getting knocked to the side as the monkey paw smacked into my body, sending me into a few empty cupboards. I was already dazed within only a few seconds of seeing this thing but it's almost funny. It tricked me by using the wounded yowling cat sound, only to ambush me here. This was a natural predator and I had to get away before I became its next meal. It's snout rose up to my head level as it opened its mouth, only for a large light to build up from the depths of it.
The natural lighting that came from supposedly nowhere vanished for only a second as it stole any that was nearby before unleashing all of it into my direction. Immediately, I grabbed the edges of the kitchen counter and pulled myself off, only to land on the ground and having the beam of light barely missing the top of my head. My hair would've surely been singed if I was on my knees. It doesn't matter now as I just got up and ran as fast as I could out of the kitchen and down a small hallway that opened up into a bedroom.
Everything was packed up with the bed laying on the ground with dust. It wasn't on a bedframe or anything, so it'll be almost impossible to hide under it. The closet was open and clear with nowhere else to hide in, I didn't really have a choice. Yeah, it was the most obvious place to look but this was an animal or something. Besides, time was ticking away as I could hear it scrambling in the kitchen after unleashing that light beam. I quickly jumped into the closet and quietly shut the doors behind me. Why did it take so long to start moving, that's what I didn't understand, unless there was a small gap in-between the beam of light and it being able to move?
I couldn't really think too much about it as the creature crept into the bedroom, it's tails gliding along the walls. The snout of the animal was long with sharp teeth trailing inside the mouth like a carnivorous animal, and its right arm being that of a monkey. The paw was gripped into a fist and it slightly stood up to look around, the one monkey paw on the ground and the other just kind of hanging there. Then it occurred to me, like the idiot that I am, that this a dream.
I don't know why it took me so long to actually realize, no, to accept the idea that this really was one. I mean, how could a creature that like exist. Hell, if this is just a dumb dream, then I can't get killed or is there some kind of special thing I need to do. What... what if this fox thing represents something in me, or really this entire area? The empty space, abandoned house, fox creature.
God, I wish someone else was here to help me think, I just feel so alone right now. Wait, didn't I read something like that? A monkey's paw is to do with something like wishing that only results in bad things... so... am I running away from myself that holds all my pain, guilt, and hopeless wishing. If it's chasing me, then accepting all of those feelings in me is the only way. I opened the closet door, swallowing up my fear as the fox stared at me, its teeth baring at me.
I need to allow all of this into me; the feelings of abandonment, loneliness, and fear for what could be. I only know of one person who could just get rid of all of that with them just being next to me, holding out my hand to the fox while keeping my eyes open. If I am to die, then I'll die with resolve, hearing the fox growl like a Pitbull, its jaw only a few inches away from my cheek.
Still, I stood there waiting as it slowly backed up before getting low to the ground. Do I just let it attack me? I know that it's going to do that, it's a predator whereas I'm the prey. Does it really matter? As it lunged forward at me, all I could do was wince at the thought of the pain, the growling and howling sound unevenly yelped from its mouth. At first, there wasn't any pain when it hit my arm, looking to see that it somehow became a part of me.
My arm was still normal, but then the uncomfortable feeling turned into something I couldn't have imagined. The pain, the fucking pain sent me to my knees as I reeled forward and yelled into the nothingness. I couldn't escape it, the saliva in my mouth forcing itself out and mixing with my tears. They just wouldn't stay, and there wasn't anything I could do. My breathing became unsteady too as I began choking and coughing uncontrollably.
Maybe I could have gotten used to it if that was the only thing. True hell only embraced me further as the feelings that bottled up inside of me were exploding out. The frustration was the strongest; I wasn't different than them and yet I was treated as such. You know what, fuck all of them. There wasn't any confusion in the things I felt, just the thought of proving everyone wrong.
I woke up panting, my entire body hurting from the dream I had, especially my left arm. It felt like I'd just dunked my arm into a pot of boiling water and let it sit inside for an hour, but I didn't understand why it should feel like that. If this happened to me, was it just a coincidence or did DJ go through the same thing? I had to see, getting up and beginning my trek to the bus stop. Should I even think about what happened, with the whole fox animal and empty spacy crap? Before long, the bus began to arrive as I waited, getting on and seeing DJ wait for me in the middle with a his seat open for another person. It should be obvious by now that I sat with him since he was the only person on this bus that I would talk to.
I didn't really have the free time to tell him later and the questions I had were really taking up a lot of space in my head, so I just had to come out and say it, "Um, uhhh, mmm. Hell, did you have any weird dreams last night?"
DJ could only look at me with the same confidence that he seems to always have while saying, "My dreams are always strange and macabre. You know me enough to figure that out."
"That's not what I mean. Like, a dream that causes real fear and pain, and it's just weird and doesn't make sense but still seems familiar." I said with DJ staying quiet for a little bit, thinking about what I meant before trying to solve this puzzle.
He was obviously clueless on what I meant, but that might just be his weird way of seeing if this was something special or just another strange dream, "I don't know, yet. If it happens again, can you please describe it in detail. Who knows, it could be something happening to your body while you're asleep and the dreams are just the byproduct." He probably didn't have the same or similar dream that I had, and it sounded like nothing was out of the ordinary with his own dreams. So, then I'm just by myself in this. Immediately, I nodded and waited for us to get to school, finally having something unique that I'll have to figure out.