Hey. It’s me. Ashley.
I am happy to tell you all that my summer was uneventful. Well, uneventful in terms of inhuman activity, at least. There was plenty of family drama. I figured I’d be able to handle anything, after having to deal with the flickering man all last school year, but lol no, just because I got through this one thing it doesn’t mean that I’ve magically matured into a perfectly functional adult and all of my personal problems have gone away.
Normally this is where I’d say something to put myself down, but I swore to myself that I’d stop doing it, so we’re just going to hurtle forward past that bit.
(if you’re new, start here, and if you’re totally lost, this might help)
Onwards to family drama.
I think my issues with my family are mostly with my older sister. She’s kind of awful, I’ve realized. I can’t believe I used to look up to her. She made a little remark about how it’s unsurprising I haven’t come home with a boyfriend (I didn’t tell them about Grayson) during my ‘welcome home’ family dinner and unfortunately, I can’t tell you the exact language because it was like… I don’t know, I think I just mentally shut down for a few seconds while my brain warred between freezing up like I usually do and just… exploding with anger.
But then my little brother asked me to pass the mashed potatoes and that snapped me out of it and I realized that yelling at my sister and blaming her for, well, everything, was not something I should do in front of my younger siblings.
But I thought a lot about it afterward. I think… my sister has turned into a bit of a bully. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but that’s what happened. As the oldest I think she had this sense of responsibility towards us, that she had to step in as another parental figure of sorts after dad died. And I think she resents us for that.
I wonder how many of her choices she made because she felt like she had to stick around. If she truly wanted to marry her highschool sweetheart or if she wanted to leave like I did. And I think she was pushing me down the same path as her because maybe that validated her choices, with no consideration for what I really wanted.
I told Cassie about all this and she texted me, ‘sounds like a lot of “not your problem.”’
Yeah, okay, fair. I can’t fix her. I can’t change her. But I’m also a little worried about my younger siblings. One of them is a sophomore in highschool now - is she going to subtly start trying to control their life too? Like what I’ve been trying to do on campus… I feel I can take steps to help and then the rest is up to them.
I talked to my mom. I used a lot of the strategies the couple months I spent in therapy taught me. Lots of ‘I’ language. Explaining how things that have happened have made me feel without trying to place blame. It went… surprisingly well, even though my mom did a hard pivot from ‘I feel my sister was trying to control my life and I’m concerned she might do it to others’ to ‘is this why you left home I thought it was because your boyfriend left but maybe there’s something more going on that I’m not aware of.’
My mom is busy, not oblivious. Once she had the clues in front of her, she jumped on them like they were an espresso during exam week. And I felt safe being honest with her.
She now knows everything about my very-ex-boyfriend. Yes. Including how he’s dead. She’s going to talk to Tyler and see if they can invent some story that doesn’t implicate me but gives the family closure. I mean, I feel like they have a really easy excuse right at hand - ‘oh yeah so the Lady of Stories (or Beau I guess) finally mentioned what happened’ but I also get if Tyler isn’t comfortable with that kind of a lie.
No, I did not visit the campground, for the record. Considering my, uh, entanglements, I figured that would be… not smart. The devil would probably take my presence there as an invitation and while I’m sure y’all would be making popcorn for “LoS vs. The Devil” I kind of have to live here.
At least during the summers, that is.
I told my mom that once I saw that I had no reason to stay, I realized I didn’t want to in the first place. I felt trapped. I didn’t want to spend my entire life in one town. And that maybe the world is a dangerous place, but I felt like I was suffocating here, and I was willing to take a risk in order to live the life I wanted. I didn’t want to transfer to the college close to home because it wasn’t about the school, it was about going out into the world, not being afraid to do so, and carving out a place for myself that was of my own choosing.
It wasn’t quite that eloquent. But I think I got my point across.
Then mom told me she understood, that she shouldn’t have tried to talk me out of it, and that she was letting her fear get in the way of what I wanted.
It feels strange to have a conversation with my mom where I felt like an adult and not just her child.
Mom drove me back to campus when it was time for the fall semester to start. She helped me move into the apartment Cassie and I are sharing. Cassie’s parents were there too so I got to meet them and that was neat, they were pretty cool.
It’s really great having an apartment. Like this is a real step towards becoming an adult. Yeah, okay, turning 18 is a legal milestone I guess, but I’m sure everyone here knows that it’s not like some switch is magically flipped in your brain and you’re like ‘oh I have responsibilities now.’ Sure, living in the dorm is a bit of a primer for adulthood, but this whole signing a lease and moving into an apartment thing is a whole other level. More responsibilities and this time it feels like you’ve reached the big league. It’s not just waking up on time and doing your homework, which you’ve already been doing for most of your life.
It’s things like… paying rent. And utilities. And feeding the cat.
Yeah Cassie totally came back from break with a cat. Don’t worry, she asked if I was okay with it first. We didn’t have pets growing up, but I’ve been around barn cats and am not allergic, so I said it was fine with me. She promptly went to the shelter and adopted this absolute unit of a cat. I think she went in there and was like ‘I would like the most pounds per dollar, please’ and they were like ‘we know just the cat for you, let me get the forklift.’ He’s big, he’s fluffy, and he’s chunky enough that the vet was like ‘this cat is obese’ and put him on a prescription diet.
I swear it’s like picking up a sack of lead potatoes. I suggested she name him “Titanosaur” and she took my suggestion. We call him Titan for short.
And before anyone suggests this, no, I don’t think this cat is going to become our own personal inhuman detector. He has like… two brain cells and engages them only one at a time.
Anyway, I love him, even if he is trying to smother me in my sleep because his one active brain cell doesn’t realize that he’s big enough to cover my entire face if he tries to sleep on my head.
The apartment itself is pretty nice. It’s just a small two-story building on an alleyway. We’re renting the downstairs. It’s a bit dated, but it makes it feel homey to me, and everything is in good repair. The lady we’re renting from is super nice. She says she just wants the college students to have a good start on their own that isn’t the apartments built downwind of the pig farm.
Also I suspect there’s no way anyone is going to buy a tiny little alleyway house that is literally across the street from campus. Rental is probably her only option.
The only downside of the apartment is that now that we’re off campus, the devil can drop by whenever he feels like it.
Nothing like rolling out of bed and stumbling into the living room, still in your PJs, only to find the devil sitting on the sofa you bought off a graduating student for $20.
Also, he was eating the poptarts I was planning on having for breakfast.
“Cozy little place you’ve got,” he said. “I suppose I should have brought you a housewarming gift.”
“No thanks,” I replied immediately.
“Oh c’mon, I can give things out with no strings attached!”
“No you can’t.”
He paused, tilting his head as he considered.
“Yeah, no, you got me there,” he admitted. “I can’t. It’s just so entertaining though!”
“Well, I don’t think I’ll need your help anymore. I’ve got the situation handled.”
His expression immediately shifted. He glanced at me for a second, his eyes narrowed and his face carefully devoid of emotion. Then he shifted, directing his gaze elsewhere, and a languid smile appeared on his lips again. It felt fake. I had seen the way he was looking at me.
Calculating. Wary.
Fine then, I thought. Let him not trust me. I’d killed one inhuman. Maybe he should be scared of me.
My chest felt tight thinking this. I wanted to scream. Throw up. It was hard to breathe.
“I did bring something with me,” he said, thankfully derailing my thoughts.
I took a few deep breaths and slowly the room seemed to return to normal. The lights didn’t feel as bright.
“It’s not for you, though. It’s for Titanosaur.”
And he produced from… somewhere… a cardboard box. He stood up and carefully placed it in the middle of the living room. Then he whistled and Titan came running from Cassie’s room and jumped right into the box. It fit him perfectly. He turned into a puddle of fur with just his ears poking out and his wide eyes shining out of the amorphous blob he’d become.
So yeah, that’s a thing, my roommate’s cat has a box from the devil himself. And since the living room is really small he’s now a tripping hazard because he insists on the box being in the middle of the only walkway through the living room. Like. If we move it… it gets moved back.
I’m not entirely convinced the box isn’t moving itself. This is the devil we’re talking about.
Let’s see… not much to update you on about Grayson. He dropped by to see the new apartment but couldn’t stay long and that’s about all I’ve seen of him. He looks exhausted. This is his senior year so I’m sure that’s stressful, but also there’s the whole thing going on with his dad. I suspect that the flickering man was helping keep the president in check and now I’ve, uh, removed that little bit of help. I fear it’s all fallen on Grayson’s shoulders. I’m not sure how to help him. I’m just going to be patient and supportive and wait for him to ask for anything.
Oh! And Daniel (Katana Boy) is gone. Not gone as in ‘dead gone’ or ‘trapped in another dimension gone.’ Transferred gone. Good riddance. Anime club might actually be enjoyable this year. Though I might need to drop it, tbh. I’ve decided to start going to the LGBTQIA+ club with Cassie. It feels a little weird, but Cassie assures me I’d be welcome, and that way I can see Josh regularly and make sure he’s doing okay.
I think that’s all the gossip. Cassie is being a little evasive about her summer, but she also seems happy so I think it’s going to be good news when she finds the right time to tell me. We’ve only been back on campus a few days now and it’s been crazy getting unpacked and buying our books (omg so much money 😭) and we haven’t had a lot of time to just… talk.
However, even though it’s only the first week of the semester, the campus has already launched into its usual bullshit at full speed.
Maria noticed it first. She’s had an epiphany over the summer, she says. She can’t keep lurking quietly in the back of the Folklore Society meetings. After the incident in the graveyard, she fears that something is leading them deliberately into danger. And while the current president of the club seems to be somewhat rational, she’s concerned that might change now that he’s had his first exposure to the inhuman. He might go seeking it out in the interest of ‘learning more’ and drag the rest of the club with her.
I can’t fault her logic. I mean, when I first met her, she was kind of a gawky tourist anxious to meet the predators up close and personal.
So she’s going to stop keeping quiet and start educating. She says I don’t need to show up. She can handle this herself, in fact, she feels she should. The whole incident with Patricia happened while she was leading the club, after all. She feels responsible.
I’m not going to get involved. I can’t fix everything myself and if Maria feels this is up to her, then I’ll let her do it and help out when she asks for it. But I did ask her to find out who is sponsoring the club this year. I doubt the old professor is coming back. I didn’t see her name on any of the classes available while I was scheduling.
She asked me to meet her on campus to talk through all of this with her in person. It was a bit much for text and like everyone else in my generation, I would rather set myself on fire than talk to someone on the phone.
Also Maria needs a new cellphone and is currently having to message me through Discord from her computer. The new one is on order and should get here soon. She’s not getting much else for Christmas this year, her parents said.
Apparently this isn’t the first phone she’s lost.
“Have you noticed that there’s a lot of standing water on campus?” she asked me, once she’d finished explaining her reasoning for getting more involved with the Folklore Society.
“I mean that’s kind of normal around here,” I said. “It rains all the time. Even when the weather forecast doesn’t say rain.”
Especially when the weather forecast doesn’t say rain. Like it’s trying to trick us into getting caught out in it.
“Yeah, but normally there’s not this many puddles on the sidewalk.”
I looked around. I’ll be honest - I haven’t been paying attention to the puddle per square feet of concrete ratio. It seemed like Maria had a point, but I really had no frame of reference to compare the current state of our surroundings with. I’ve tried to avoid puddles after the whole traveling river thing, but I didn’t pay close enough attention to know whether Maria was right or not.
“It could be you’re just more sensitive to their presence,” I suggested.
She bit her lip.
“Maybe I am. But I think we need to start paying attention to them. I lost my cellphone in one.”
Okay well that explains that mystery. I’d been assuming she left it somewhere and it got stolen. But cellphones actually hold up in water pretty well these days, right? I mean I got mine wet and it just shut itself down until it was dry and everything was fine with it.
Then Maria elaborated further. She didn’t ‘lose’ her phone as in she dropped it in a puddle and the water got inside and broke it. She lost it in that her phone vanished. And when she put her hand into the puddle to find it, she was able to reach far deeper into the puddle than should have been possible.
“I mean I had my arm in that puddle up to my elbow before I realized this was a bad idea,” she said.
I glanced around us. The surrounding pools of water suddenly took on an ominous veneer and I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination running wild, but some of the distant puddles seemed to have a black sheen to them, like an oil slick.
“Is it… too late to adjust the list of rules this year?” she ventured.
It is. I got them printed out at home because I could get a discount with the one guy that runs a print shop. Ah small towns. Love ‘em. (not really)
Maria is going to bring this up with the Folklore Society instead. She thinks they’re a lot more level-headed than previous years, since most of them joined without believing the inhuman world even existed. They might have some ideas on how to get the word out that people need to avoid the puddles.
I think that might be harder than it sounds.
I think they’re going to pull people in no matter what we tell them.
My memory is a little fuzzy after we parted ways. I’m not exactly sure what happened. I last recall looking at a nearby puddle, wondering if they were all portals to the traveling river now. Then there was a moment where it felt like I was waking up from a dream, when your mind snaps back into awareness but you can’t recall where you are or what is going on for a brief, panicked second.
I was on my knees beside the puddle, leaning over so close to it that my nose was almost touching the surface of the water.
And there was something inside it, growing rapidly closer, with shining lights like eyes.
I threw myself backwards just as the creature erupted from the water, leaping straight up in the air like a dolphin, its skin mottled gray and green, jaws snapping mindlessly, revealing rows of shining white teeth. Its body was nearly as long as my arm and sickening lime green eyes peppered its head and body, glowing faintly under the overcast sky.
It landed on the sidewalk. Not back in the puddle. The sidewalk.
It flailed around, thrashing its tail furiously as it tried to propel its body closer towards me, the mouth gnashing mechanically. I stumbled backwards, frozen in terror, and then some small part in the back of my head reminded me to breathe. That’s it. Breathe.
I sucked in a lungful of air. Held it. Let it out slowly. The entire process took under a minute and in that time, the fish-thing only managed to flail a few inches closer. But my head was clear now and I could think, could reason on what to do. And that broke me out of my paralysis.
I needed to get it back in the puddle. I couldn’t just walk away and leave it for someone to deal with. That wouldn’t be the right thing to do. It was trying to bite me, after all, and I didn’t care to drag anyone else unwittingly into this mess. So I circled around the fish and stretched out a hand, trying to grab its tail. It took a couple tries and then I found myself in the unfortunate position of trying to hold onto a wildly thrashing fish that was trying to curl its body around so it could sink its teeth into something fleshy.
The thing was big. And strong.
That was even before it sprouted an arm.
There was a sound like nails on a chalkboard and the resistance went from wild spasms to a more directed, focused direction. My gaze focused on one of the fins, my mind sluggishly realizing that something had changed. That an appendage had sprouted out of its side, slick with ichor, and was now digging sharp nails into the concrete. I threw my entire body weight into dragging it backwards, even as its claws left furrows in the sidewalk and as another arm sprouted out of its body with a sound like ripping an orange in two.
Panic began to break free from the back of my head. A single breathing exercise wasn’t going to be enough for much longer. It was going to have legs and then it could turn itself around and I’d find out just how sharp those teeth were.
Then this dude came running up and punted the damn thing. I let go of the tail on reflex. It rolled end over end and went sliding back into the puddle. And vanished.
I stared at the other student incredulously. He was a big guy - I swear, from his muscle mass and the way he punted that thing, I’m not convinced he’s not on the college football team.
“Hey,” he said breathlessly. “That was, uh, weird.”
He seemed to want to talk more about what just happened. I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t want to get him involved any further. I felt sick inside, because it seems that once you have your first encounter with something inhuman, they’re more visible to you and vice versa. I didn’t want to curse this well-meaning bystander with this knowledge, like I was, like Cassie is, and so many other unfortunates on campus.
But at least I had something that might help him. Something that gives just enough information to survive, but not enough so that they’re now part of the world I grew up in.
I gave him a list of the rules.
And then I walked off.[x]