A Heart Takes Shape

Just one day after orientation, Joe Hoffman could still feel the dread pooling in his stomach as he attempted to focus on the gravel road. This feeling accompanied him throughout this long three hour drive into the woods. He was on his way towards the facility, a place called the Abrasion, though they neglected to explain why. He didn’t have the luxury to question it though being as down on his luck as he was. Ever since he got released from jail he has been interview to interview but none would give him a chance. He had some hope but he knew by the look in their eye, their scowl, that he didn’t stand a chance. Their mind was made from the moment he explained the gap in his resume, though this one was different. The moment he told them of his record their eyes damn near glistened.

After he said that they seemed to loosen up and tell him of the place he was going to be working at. Speaking as if the decision had already been made, even though he hadn’t agreed to anything. It all sounded classified, absolutely more than a civilian should hear but he explained it as if it was a simple chat about the weather. The words he spoke sounded unreal, unnatural even, but Joe knew a liar, and people would stutter lying around him knowing what he told the interviewer, so he took him at his word despite the implausibility.

What he said was that the Abrasion Center was nothing more than a government containment facility for all of the unnaturals of the world. Monsters, ghouls, any mutation really that could harm the world. It was a place where they could study the things that they couldn’t just simply kill. Learning its weaknesses, how many of them there were, and what they could do to end humanity. Joe, despite believing it, recoiled. His eyes sharpened. Something in his body knew this was bad but he wasn’t so simple minded to follow whatever his body declared, so he thought before speaking,

“Well, are they sentient?”

The man stood up with his clipboard, his footsteps feeling as heavy as those of giants, though his each word slithered like a hag’s,

“Its hard to say, some are, some aren’t. Most are mindless, at least to an extent.”

Joe scowled, raising his hand from his side to point at him,

“Some are sentient? You’re capturing sentient creatures?”

The man leaned forward and put a single finger on his, gently nudging it down,

“I completely understand the hesitance. It's a stressful job, take a few days and clear your head. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

The answer his body forced out of him felt so definitive but the words the recruiter spoke felt simply linear, the kind of confidence that makes your decisions feel inconsequential. And just as the man knew, he ended up in his grasp.

A day later from the interview he went to orientation but it was a high enough sample size to understand Abrasion’s hiring process; Criminals, those who acted with conviction, need for justice, almost as if it was an impulse, that and Veterans. Not that he could enjoy, or really understand them since they only got the most indoctrinated subset of them. Not even an atom of him doubted that he was better than his peers. After all, they may of had their reasons but what were they in the face of actual justice? Though he would be an idiot not to acknowledge that he wished he could find those who could understand him, better than anyone without righteous blood on their hands at least.

At orientation he was handed a pamphlet, it was about the creature that Joe was told he would be watching. It didn’t seem to have much to read but he pulled out what little information there was, it described it as one of the friendlier creatures in the facility, and it suggested that perhaps he’d even find taking care of it pleasant. Joe was curious why he was dealt such an easy hand. What he felt wasn’t relief but worry for the others, in all honesty he would rather get a more dangerous creature if it meant some of these people could live.

Between all the words and lines there was one word that he read that stuck with him, caretaker? Who in their right mind would use such a lavish term for such an awful job. He thought it best not to partake in calling or thinking of his job in that way, best not to humanize it too much.

…

The treeline parted, briefly allowing the moonlight to seep through his windshield before the shadow of a hulking concrete building obscured it. After parking the car he got out, mesmerized by the structure's huge mass. The moon's light being entirely eclipsed by the building making it hard to see any small details in the structure but one thing stood out; A tree’s roots had grown into the walls, it attached itself to it as tight as moss, though even despite this, there were no cracks, simply burrows.

He felt his stomach twist, and something squeeze at his lungs; His body kept pulling him forward despite how much effort he put into trying to stop. His brain cried to him to halt but it only slowed though it slowed, it wouldn’t stop, not until he was right in front of the entrance. His eyes had the sensation of pinpricks tapping into them. Being worried he took a moment and closed his eyes, then raised his chin to look at the sky. The stars were so clear out here, and the world was so deceptively quiet-

Dee-doo

The door slid open, and the first thing to greet him was the glinting void of a camera lens. His breath caught again, but something oppressive still rested there, tapping against his chest. He stepped through, into an empty reception space, with no one to interact with he decided to walk forward into the establishment; They were sterile, like those of a hospital with the countless doors and occasional glass walls made for easier observation.

Joe’s walk slowed so he could get a look through one of the windows. Inside he saw a vague shape of a malnourished person, made of some dripping bloody substance, and itching at itself with its hands. An eye wobbled precariously as it turned up towards him, just barely visible through the liquid. Joe flinched away, walking faster past the window.

There were cameras all around and in order to not get called for something he didn’t do, he thought it wise to walk in the middle of the hallway and keep his hands deep in his pockets. Against the wall at the end of the hall had a map engraved into it, making the colors by using gems. Being sure not to look suspicious, he stood in the middle of the floor in perfect view of all the cameras, looking at the map from a distance.

It was segmented using the various colors, codifying into many regions: containment, research, staff, and one section labeled courtyard, colored in emerald. He thought it strange that such a place would have something like a courtyard. Though, even if it was strange, it lightened the heavy feeling in his chest. Know that this place cared enough to give them a place to just simply exist. It made him believe in their message just that little bit more. Luckily the creature he was tasked to be visiting seems to be along the way so he would be able to see this court yard. So with a slightly lighter step he moved forward, taking his hands out of his pockets and rubbing them together. He only just now realized how cold this establishment was.

Turning the corner he saw the court yard, his hands froze even in its pursuit for the heat of friction. The court yard wasn’t outside, that much was fair but, not even the appearance of sod. It was revealed to be simple paint on concrete, his teeth gritted, wanting to think it crude but the strokes of the paint brushes that were used to compose this room were perfectly deliberate. The ceiling was blue with splashes of white to act as clouds, and the sun was drawn with a bright smile and a pair of sunglasses above them.

In all honesty, from the river to bridges, it all seemed to be in line with what might be a child's understanding of the outside world, not that of anyone who’d been there. The same pine tree painted on the walls over and over again all had air fresheners attached to them; even with them here it only just broke the sent of paint, if you were looking for it you’d find it. The only difference in the line was a sign attached to one of the painted trees that read:

“Remember: stay true to the environment around you!”

The sign looked cute but he assumed he was meant to keep the illusion for the prisoners that may be here. It looked so plastic, so fake, a lie. He couldn’t find an inch of organic life anywhere. That was until he turned the corner and saw the centerpiece of the courtyard. A lone willow tree, with shadows hanging like bodies against the walls, and roots spreading out and into openings in the “rivers” nearest to it. Wooden cocoons draped and hung from it, swaying to impossible wind; His hand twitched, aching to knock on it, to confirm it was simple wood indeed.

*Dee-doo*

A sound over an intercom knocked him out of it, reminding him suddenly why he was here and how late he may be if he didn’t get back to it. He started on the path again, quicker now to not find any more distractions.With each step the frequency of the bugs scuttling on the floor increased. And then there it was, the entrance to his assignment. Without any input from him the scanner detected him and the door swung open. His body was worried that he may not return but he forced himself to walk inside. He was greeted with an office of sorts, one overlooking a window in the containment room beyond; Joe ignored that for the moment, instead focusing on the desk, and audio recorder on top of it. He pressed play.

“Mr. Hoffman, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Abrasion Family. You should already understand what we do, but your role in our little family is different than the standard.”

Joe circled the desk as it spoke, moving to rifle through drawers, ones filled solely with stale air, this growing his concerns.

“You are tasked with the observation, and appeasement of a creature capable of changing forms, and even beyond that, destroying any method of control we have developed. It has taken to the name Nia, I suggest you use it.”

His blood ran cold, and his body joined it, frozen until his gaze trailed up to the window. He couldn’t see it within, not from where he was standing at least.

“Quite unexpectedly, it has no issues confining itself, citing its own morality in explanation of why it stays. Thus, we must simply keep it happy, by maintaining its belief that it has friends, and via the novels it clings to; That is where you come in, Mr. Hoffman. Personable man that you are, this should be simple work.”

“More information to come in the days that follow; Today, you are simply tasked with getting to know the creature. Have a wonderful shift, Mr. Hoffman.”

And then, all of the fear in his body fell away. To the tune of a simple thought, he would’ve been more scared if someone had said goodbye to him when he left his home, or if a friend had called, or anyone in the world had truly expressed a wish to see him tomorrow. The idea that only an unnamed supervisor could express such a simple phrase. It shocked his heart back into normal rhythm.

He turned to the door leading further in, and a bookshelf rested beside it, then he let out a little sigh before taking a few and slotting them under his arm. They were swollen, and damaged by use, but he was mostly interested in making it a subject of conversation, so he hoped they didn’t mind.

So, he grabbed the latch swinging the door open, and was greeted by some mimicry of a stereotypical jail house, akin to the courtyard before. Only one cell was anything more than paint on a wall, the center one but the bugs were more than real; It made his skin crawl as he stepped closer he could make out excitable yelling, maneuvering itself into a full cackle.

Within, in the center of the cell, was a chest with a small boy sitting within it. He was jittering, swirling with manic energy as he chattered incoherently to the bugs that lined the walls. They were across the entire cell all across the ceiling, even across the cell window.

Joe paused for a moment, simply watching, before he finally knocked on the bars quietly. Its pompous voice trailed off in the middle of its speech as it turned its head waving him away. Joe winced, then scratched his head, before finally deciding to just move back a few steps and stand in front of the adjacent cell. He looked at the cell again, examining the details like, the slab it must have called a bed and its ragged sheets, covered in markings of skulls and patches over the holes made in it. On the walls were more mad scrawlings, winged strawberries, clothed bears, even sonic, he knew that one, but other than that just complete nonsense.

Other than that all that was there was mere mimicries of household items; There was a cardboard strip drawn to be a TV, close to right, but with uncut edges, and wonky proportions. The creature would have to have only the most basic understanding of the world for such simple facades to work. It caused this moment of confliction. The idea that nearly everything in his life being either false or fabricated was just enough for Joe to feel a little sounder of empathy, though the moment he felt it, he quickly doused it.

Sweat secreted from the palm of his hand and onto the cover of the novels. He turned the stack over in his hands, feeling over the pages and trailing across the cover. He paused on it. All close, all having some form of contact, them all smiling together; it looked like a happy family photo. His pupils slowly blew out, and his hearing began to ring, some low tone that he could barely register as anything at all, even though his body tensed like it mattered more than anything in the world.

Joe realized that all of his senses had been impaired so he closed his eyes and breathed slowly. Once his heart slowed he opened his eyes and they were already resting on some words and he read them, it was the author's name: Nia Kenji. The book's cover became eclipsed in slender shadow prompting Joe to look up. During his glances ascent his eyes were met by two open chests with tongues protruding out of them pressed against the floor. Teeth lining the openings, them piercing the tongue bleeding out a purplish fuchsia color. The creature’s legs were covered by pale leg thigh highs and oddly high shorts. Joe’s face unconsciously moved to a scowl before he remembered who this was meant to be to him so he held back his judgement; outwardly at least. Lastly its frame was covered by a red pirates jacket, then he saw its face.

It’s face looked soft and inviting, giving the impression that Joe could snap him with just the slightest bit of force. Though, when he tried to look him in its eyes he was only met with one eye ball staring back. The other was just a dark gaping hole with shredded flesh slipping out of it. Joe’s smiled as the creature spoke,

“So, hey, you got something for me today, or are you here to hang out with me?”

Joe got up, not breaking eye contact as he began the motion to offer the novels its face stiffened, eye beginning to glaze over. His body let out a scared smile and he went with it, transitioning the motion into putting it under his arm.

“Actually, I think you would be happy to learn that I am here for both. I’m your new war-” He paused trying to think through how he could make it sound more pleasing before settling on, "Counselor, I hope you’ll have me.”

He bowed to the creature but he couldn’t get himself to lower than the creature's eye level so during the bow he also knelt down a little. Sweat pooled in his hands as he stayed in place waiting for a reaction, and he got one.

Snickering. The boy he bowed his head to seemed to be falling into an uncontrollable childish laughter.
“What in the world are you doing? You're being so weird right now! It's hard to tell what you're feeling so can you get up already!”

Something about his tone reminded Joe of someone of his past, his back untensed and he clasped his hands together. He spaced out and stayed put. The creature leaned over his back and spoke teasingly,

“Whats taking so long? You gonna kiss my feet while you're down there?”

Joe shot up, his nose raised to the sky said as a full scowl took over his face,

“You take me for a whore creature?” Joe said, sat in silence for a moment listening to himself before responding to his own words, “I know what I am and that has nothing to do with a disgusting moniker like that.”

The entity tilted its head, then sat down right where it was, criss-cross with his listening ears out on full,

“Then who are you, Mister Counselor?"

Joe blinked a few times, the creatures care free nature throwing him off balance of what this was meant to be. It made it hard to hold onto any emotion at all so he just stood there trying to think of an answer; one came without even the slightest effort of a thought and he spoke it as if he was a prophet speaking the word of a god,

“I’m an honest man, not an interesting one, but I am honest. Honest enough to not go kissing the feet of anyone who isn’t my wife.”

The creature asked,

“So you kiss your wife's feet?”

Joe answered fast,

“Thats none of your concern.”

There was a moment of silence after that, where the unblinking creature’s expression slowly morphed from its smug look into a pout, before it bounced to its feet with a grin and exclaimed,

“Hello, my name is Nia, and I am a mimic! I enjoy drawing, talking to my adoring fans,” Nia looked back and waved at a bug who was scuttling by, “and I also like playing games in my cell sometimes. Proud cell dweller here!.”

He stuck a thumb against its chest, then dropped the smile again. The flesh protruding out of its empty eye socket twitched before it squatted back down in disappointment,

“You know, you're really not making this easy. Could you come up with a conversation topic at the very least? Or maybe continue the one I gave you? Or even just give me a ‘Hi my name is so and so.’ I don’t get to meet a ton of people, so it would be good if you put some effort into this. I'm not used to people who are bigger than me.”

Joe stuck out his hand and firmly announced,

“My name is Joe Hoffman, I am a human who just got out of prison myself. I like going out on dates, being informed on those I care about, and planning. Also, I think baking is neat. It's not what most people would view as fun but it's what I find to be enjoyable. It’s a pleasurable to meet you, Nia. Now do you wish to show me around?”

Nia’s face lit up with a gasp grabbing the hand that Joe put out to shake and ran with it. Joe’s shoes on his feet are dragging against the concrete. Confused Nia looked back saying curiously,

“Yeah, I do? So why are you resisting?”

Joe looked at him proclaiming,

“Bacause you shouldn’t pull people around Nia, if I didn’t keep my stance someone could of gotten hurt.”

Nia scoffed, a bubble of white smoke leaving his lungs drooping to the floor. Then he rose complaining,
“Why do you need to be so fragile? Fine, we can just walk but don’t be too far behind. I like hearing your breathing; My fans don’t breathe nearly enough, nor hard enough for that matter, at least to get my fill.”

Nia walked with a pep in his step as he hummed a rhythm. Joe sighed following close behind him saying,

“You really are a strange one, you know that?”

Trailing behind Joe followed as Nia laughed spinning around in place as a jest,

“I sure hope so, if I were to blend in, I doubt people would even want me anymore!”

Joe rolled his eyes, speaking what would be pleasant to hear,

“I’m sure they would like you no matter what. Now, tell me about this roo-”

“Cell, it's a cell, not a room. Lying to yourself or other people doesn’t do anything but hurt you, and others. So it's a cell. And that's fine.”

Nia sat on the wooden bed and curled his legs up into him so he could rest a cheek against his knee. Joe sat next to Nia ruffled his hair, being careful none of his hand leaked over to the front of his head in fear that the eye socket flesh may dirty his hand. As he felt his fingers part his hair it made his eyes soften; enough for him to speak from the chest with a soft smile on his face,

“You know what? You're right. So correction, would you like to show me your cell? We’re going to be with each other a lot by the looks of things, so we should get comfy- more comfortable.”

The creature laid back, smacking the back of its head against the wooden bed. It’s face pickled, before grabbing his hair. His hair lengthened rapidly and his fingers began to melt into his hair turning into a red hair tie, making it into a ponytail then it used it as a pillow; Then moved its head to rest on its cheek then asked,

“Ugh, I don’t want to anymore, the mood’s all ruined,” Nia’s body squashed lightly onto his bed like a firm slime, before perking right back up and asking, “So, you mentioned liking to go out on dates righ-”

Joe cut the creature off,

“I’m afraid I’m-” He winced, then bit his tongue. “Yeah, I enjoy going out on them, why do you ask?”

Nia heard Joe’s heart rate increase, and his eye dilated. He rolled to his knees on top of the bed so he could lean in, slobbering over himself he reached for Joe’s chest. Joe wanted to leap back, his body didn’t listen. Nia’s hand gently caressed the top of his shirt, running its sharpening fingers up the sternum. His body shivered, but he only tensed up, he couldn’t move.

An incision slowly tore open into the cloths, growing as its claws tapped to the very edge of his skin. His heart was beating like a drum,and breath quickening to try and match it. The two’s glances caught one another and he was captivated by the straight, porcelain face of the excited boy he was meant to be watching. Nia nodded and spoke,

“It seems as if this is important to you right,”

One of Joe’s hands finally moved, slowly moving up to grab Nia’s wrist.

“It's just, I don’t have what you have. A heart…I need one so that I can fall in love. It's everything, it's all I hear about in all the movies, all the novels, all that my world talks about,”

Drool began to tide out and leak from the creature’s mouth. Joe’s arm twitched, he started holding his breath, when did he start holding his breath?

“Don’t worry, I’m not selfish. I won’t take yours.”

Nia leaned back finally, it was smiling. Joe’s body instinctively backed up falling against the concrete wall; It's chill not even registering to him due to how low his body temperature was. In silence, the two rested on the opposite sides of the room.

The creature was left twiddling its thumbs on the bed before asking,

“Is it good if we just call it for the day? I enjoyed meeting you, but I think I want to be alone now…”

He thought about whether he was even allowed to leave but, the mission was to keep him happy. And if it takes him to leave then so be it. He spoke,

“Yeah, we can be done for the day.”

Then to not upset him anymore he walked away, bugs scurried in the opposite direction seeming to have purpose, almost like it was trying to comfort him.

Would he really want to see him after leaving him in a state like this. Sweat grew on his brow and his fist covered in sweat clenched, each nerve in his body tensed as he made a last ditch effort for progress today,

“It was good meeting you! Thank you for being kind enough not to take my heart! I will do my best to help you get one.”

Joe opened then closed the hatch behind him. Then he went to his desk and sat down. All he had to do was file a report.

Authors note:

I really hope you guys liked it :D

This is the first time where me and my edittor have ever put our full effort into making something on a webnovel so its kinda interesting seeing how it all works on this faster timeline. Though we have like 2 novels and my 2.0 coming out THIS YEAR. So it might take a bit until I have the time to make new content for this but it'll be something I think about.

Alright and if your not my audience you should come to the streams ITS FUN I THINK SOMETIMES :D