NOVEL WEB 007 – Spirits In The Material World
Getting out of the hospital I followed the ghost- I mean, Kurtis to his home.
He looks younger than me, maybe one or two years.
He's always gloomy and annoyed.
But he's not a ghost.
At least I think he's not.
I shouldn't follow strangers but he called Mrs. Jackson "Grandma", so I should be fine.
We got on the bus quietly.
It was dark outside with a light rain.
The sound and smell of the rain made me forget everything for a bit.
Looking outside, I felt that I'm alone in the world.
It's late and there's no one outside in this part of the city.
It's a nice urban scenario.
A nice feeling.
We got out and walked a bit.
It's not far away from the store.
I'd say it's 10 minutes from here to there.
The hospital was a little far away though.
Almost an hour on the bus.
Looking at his house, it's really nice.
It's smaller than most houses in this neighborhood.
But it could fit a family of 3 or 4 I guess.
Entering his house, I noticed that he took his shoes off and put them on the ground near the entrance.
I don't see any other pair, does he live alone or his parents aren't here?
After a minute of silence and him standing still I noticed him staring at me.
"...what?"
"Your shoes"
"Oh! Right"
Stupid.
Getting inside his house, it's the same feeling as outside.
It could fit a family of four here.
"Bathroom, kitchen, you can eat anything if you want"
He pointed and told me where the most important places are.
"Thank you"
"You'll sleep there, my room is that one"
"Ok"
"Just whatever you do, don't open that door"
He pointed at the door at the end of the corridor.
"Um... Why?"
"Don't open it"
He looked pretty pissed.
I wonder what's in there?
Maybe he's an orphan and that was his parents' bedroom or something tragic like that.
"Alright"
I don't want to disrespect his parents so I'm going to stay away from that room.
"Tomorrow we'll talk about what happened"
"Oh right, I almost forgot"
He looked at me dead in the eye like I'm stupid, turns, and went to his bedroom.
"Good night!"
"...night"
I caught a glimpse of it and it looked like a normal, generic, and without any decorations bedroom.
"What a bizarre guy"
I think he opened up to me a little during these days.
He's kinda awkward and sometimes seems mean.
And every time he looks at me he looks angry.
But I think he's nice.
I don't know why he's always angry though.
Maybe it's just how his face is?
Truly bizarre.
...
Waking up, I smelled something frying and heard a sizzle.
I went to the kitchen scratching my ass, almost drooling, and with my hair all messed up.
I think I got too comfortable here.
"What are you doing?"
"Breakfast"
"Oh, what is it?"
"I don't know what Americans eat so I made this"
Pancakes, waffles, toast, sausages, bacon.
That's a lot of food...
Can we eat all of that?
"You're not American?"
He stared at me without blinking somehow.
"Go take a shower"
I sniffed my arm, the one that got shot, and noticed my putrid smell.
"You're right, where was the bathroom again?"
He pointed in the direction of the bathroom.
"Ok thanks"
...
"Haa~ This shower is so good"
It's been too long since I took a good shower.
Reluctantly stepping out, I noticed something important.
"I don't have any more clothes!"
Usually, I just wear the uniform that Mrs. Jackson made for me.
It was comfy, to be honest.
Um... Do I call him now or what?
Wait.
He left some clothes here for me.
They're all his size.
He's a shorter than me.
Ugh.
Whatever, at least I won't be naked.
I grumbled together in unison with my stomach.
Let's get out of here already.
The shower seduced me for too long.
...
Leaving the bathroom, I noticed him sitting and looking at me without blinking somehow.
"What?"
"Let's eat"
"Hm? You didn't need to wait for me"
He stared a bit longer and started eating.
I joined him in this wonderful human tradition/need.
Hmm...
"Not so bad for a single guy, eh?"
He stared at me again.
"Yes"
And then kept eating.
He's eating rather quickly, isn't he?
Oh, I guess he wants to talk already.
"So, when are we going to talk about the thing that happened, with the spirits and monsters"
"..."
"...?"
*Sigh*
"When the alien invasion happened, meteorites fell from the sky and landed all over New York"
"What does that have to do with those spirits?"
"Most people who had contact with the meteorites contracted a strange disease and died horrible death"
"Most people? What about the rest?"
As I finished saying that, a wooden puppet came out of his back.
It's a strange little boy wearing a French hat and a shoulder bag.
He has emotionless eyes.
Well, I guess every puppet has emotionless eyes.
"Those who didn't contract the disease, gained a paranormal power, the power to turn your 'life energy', your soul, into a physical form, called Stand"
"Hmm... What do they exactly do?"
"Different stands have different abilities with different appearances that can manifest themselves in many different ways.
Some are used only for fighting, some can be used for specific purposes or situations, like feeding off the fear of a target"
I instinctively touched my wound.
"I remembered you saying that 'Stand users attract other Stand users' What does that mean?"
"It means that every Stand user is fated to meet other Stand users, even you"
I don't know if I'm angry or scared.
"Why?! I didn't ask for this... Why does it have to be me?"
Fuck fuck fuck...
Will I get shot again?
Why?
If fate exists, I'm fated for shitty endings.
No matter what universe.
"So where's my Stand? So I can at least defend myself"
He passed a knife to the puppet's hands.
"What are you doing?"
He stared at me without blinking somehow.
"I'm not going to hurt you"
"Then what are you going to do?"
"Soiya!"
The puppet threw the knife at me.
Time slows down as I started thinking about everything that happened.
I was just a slob using the goodwill of a nice old lady.
Never did anything to deserve her kindness.
I barely worked right.
Always tired, always wanting to sleep.
Always wanting to get out of there.
And go where?
There's nowhere for me to go.
My home is the shop right now.
What a shitty life.
And the cherry on top is that my life is in danger now.
Almost died because of a crazy guy with a bizarre superpower.
I hate this world.
I hate this life.
All I ever wanted was a warm place to call home.
A big green yard with a nice garden.
A big tree that I see growing while I grow old.
Someone that I love to share all of this.
Maybe a cat would be nice to have.
I don't know if I would like to have children.
But it would be nice and comfy to be a housewife.
Too bad.
Life doesn't go the way I want.
It never did.
Well.
Let's go back to my impending death.
Time sped up but before the knife gets 1 meter near me, I see...
A cat?
A cat came out of nowhere and threw itself at the knife.
"What?!"
"So that's your Stand"
"It's just a cat! And you stabbed the cat!"
I panicked a little but he seemed fine staring at the cat without blinking somehow.
"Look closely"
I looked at what I thought would be a dead cat.
It's a huge fat purple cat.
It has a long tail that curves like a spiral at the end.
With sharp ears and silver shining eyes, he looked at me.
"What the fuck are you?"
"Nyau!"
With a PUMF the cat split into multiple smaller cats.
The smaller cats walked away from the knife and fused into each other, turning into the original huge fat purple cat who lied down and started to sleep.
"Huh?"