A New Task

As Emil neared the glade he banished the dark thoughts from his mind. The party was as noisy as ever, it didn’t seem like his absence was noticed at all. For once he felt like not playing along with the music. Looking around he saw Yarilo and Morana, sitting hand in hand in a garden of flowers. They bloomed vividly on Yarilo’s side, but where Morana sat they seemed to be waning and those closest to her were even starting to collect minuscule crystals of ice. Veles was secretly taking small glances at them every so often, his long wolf snout making every look very obvious to anyone who saw him.

Emil looked then at Veles’ flock, all still busy with drinking and singing. The masks that were covering their faces were of all kinds of animals, but also caricatures of people and even mythical creatures. He recognized a mask portraying a vodyanoy, though it could have also just been a mask of a frog. As he kept watching random people he noticed one of them staring right back at him, for long enough that he was sure it wasn’t a mere coincidence. That person had the mask portraying a somewhat cute mouse face and was dressed in a black cloak, hiding the body which was probably dressed in even more black clothes. Emil broke eye contact and looked into the depths of the forest. When he looked back to where the person had stood, he was once again alone in the middle of the forest near his apartment. He sighed and turned to go back home, and saw his new violin and bow waiting for him, leaned against a tree. He was glad to see them and picked them on the way back home. Looking up in a partially cloudy sky as he left the forest behind him, he realized that it was getting close to the dawn already. He hurried along the empty park to his apartment, where he just left the violin and mask near the door and dashed back towards the forest. He made his way to the stream, where he had left the water canisters the day before. He picked them up from the patch of thick ferns and hung them over his shoulder by the paracord that still tied them together.

“Where am I going to keep this junk?” Emil thought to himself as he hurried back home once again.

When he returned home, he looked for a good place to put the canisters away, but ended up simply jamming them under his bed, which was at the moment occupied by a sleeping cat. The commotion woke Eon up and it began stretching itself.

“Hello Emil, welcome back.”
“Hi Eon, it’s nice to be home. I feel like I’ve been gone for a very long time.”

“Yes, I’m sure a lot of interesting things happened to you, but for now,” the cat said and jumped to the floor. It moved to the kitchen and, while walking towards the water bowl, bumped into the food bowl. Emil gave a small smile and began preparing food for all of the cats and the fox cub. After he was done he opened the door and at once Mira and Ruta, the stray cats made their way inside. After the cats were done eating Eon jumped onto a chair.
“Emil, come here,” it said. He started having a bad feeling about what was to come, but still took a seat facing the cat.

“What is it?”
“I have a new task for you.” Emil was already deathly pale because the lake water washed off all of the makeup, but he was sure he lost even more colour when he heard that.

“But wait, I have just finished the last one.”
“I told you that one was more of a warm up task. Now we are getting to the real things. Don’t worry, this one will likely take a lot more time, so you will be able to enjoy your freedom for quite a while.”
“So, what is it?” Emil asked with his voice shaking with fear.

“This time there is a man that I want you to do away with.” Emil stared with his eyes wide, his one blue eye staring into the sole green orb.

“No, you can’t,” he started talking, but was cut off.

“You already know I can and will, stop making a fuss.”
“A fuss? I can’t just kill a person. What if I just kill myself instead?”
“I won’t allow you to do that. Now listen.”
“No I won’t listen! You can’t make me,” Emil shouted back at the cat, but then began convulsing in excruciating pain and fell to the floor. It only lasted for a couple of seconds but to him it felt like an eternity. He could feel his spirit cracking with every tick of the clock.

“I said listen. You should know by now that resisting me is futile. Anyway I’m sure you will be able to justify this in your mind sooner or later. It’s not as if I’m targeting random local saints.”
“Yes, I’m guessing he also killed you at some point, but that’s not really enough.”
“I suppose from your perspective my life is just not worth as much as his despite of what he did. Well from my perspective he deserves a fate worse than death.”
“I get that but still.”
“Just shut it. As I said, this will take a bit more planning than axing a couple of trapped foxes to death. For one, I didn’t manage to figure out where exactly he lives now.”

“Now?”
“Yes, I knew where he lived while he was killing me. I don’t expect you to achieve much right away, but just keep your eyes peeled for any people that look psychotic killers. I will give you more information as I search for him.”

“That doesn’t give me a lot to work on you know.”
“I know, just go out late at night and look for any people walking alone. He is tall, no more than ten years older than you, with a demoniacally handsome face and black hair. At the time he wore glasses, but I don’t know if he actually needed them. Oh right, let’s not forget, he is very handy with a knife. If he is back at it with his sickening practices, he might be trying to stalk or charm some unsuspecting lonely people.”

“You seem to be very familiar with him.”
“I had a lot of time. It wasn’t a quick death.”

“I see, sorry. When you called him a killer, did you just talk about yourself or?”
“Believe me, if you get to know more about him you will quickly stop feeling sorry for him.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time I didn’t feel sorry about someone suffering,” Emil muttered to himself.

“What was that?”
“Oh just something I went through last night when I was in Veles’ glade.”

“I see, well so long for now, I will be out gathering more information for you.”

“Yeah, thanks. Bye.” As Eon left, he was blankly staring out of the window. He was only awoken from his daze as Ruta and Mira began climbing his legs. He picked up the cats, had a seat and let them climb around on his lap. His mind was completely empty. After sitting like that for a half of an hour, he placed the cats down and prepared to take food to the fox cub. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw his bare eerie face. He didn’t feel like putting on the makeup, so he just found an old pair of sunglasses and put them on. They were large enough to cover his scar. He placed the food in the backpack and left for the forest. As he was walking along the streets towards the park, he kept surreptitiously glancing at the people he passed by. What Eon said had made him a bit paranoid, any one of the people he met on the street could be the one who he would eventually have to kill. He felt genuine relief as he got through the park and into the forest. There was sometimes still a person here and there, walking or jogging through the forest, but he was quickly enveloped in the solitude as he ventured deeper. He had no trouble finding the area with the fox den. Looking around he found the grave still undisturbed. The food he had left around was gone. He looked inside the entrance, where he had thrown in food the day before and it was gone as well. He chucked all of the meat inside the hole. He looked around and couldn’t find the fox kit, so he just hoped it was sleeping inside the den.

He left the forest and returned to his apartment, where he practised the violin and studied for the upcoming exams. As night began to fall Eon returned. Not wanting to talk to the cat at the moment, Emil prepared to leave.

“I will go out to keep an eye for that guy.”

“Good, I hope you are successful,” Eon replied with a slightly mocking tone. Emil left and walked in the direction of the city centre. The clothes that he had chosen were dark and he even covered his head with a hood, which was in no way unusual for the people who went out late and even put on his leather gloves. He had become so accustomed to leaving in the night for the forest that going in the opposite direction made him feel uneasy. There were still a lot of people on the streets, but unlike during the day, they were mostly keeping to themselves, their gazes pointed downwards and walking quickly while avoiding getting too close to anyone else who might disturb them on their way. Emil continued wandering the busy streets, seeing the city in a new light. It wasn’t quite as lively as it can be during the day but also not the deathly silence of the late and dark night. As the time passed crowd in the streets grew more and more sparse. The people that remained became potential suspects in Emil’s eyes. Tension rose within him and before long he began constantly looking over his shoulder, progressively sure that someone was watching him from the shadows. It was a strange feeling that he never felt when he was roaming the woods late at night, though even that could change due to being chased by mythical creatures the night before. As he looked back, he was certain that he saw movement in the shadows or someone suddenly taking a turn into a different alley. When he could bear no more, he turned around a corner and as soon as he was out of sight of any possible pursuer, he began running down the narrow winding paths among the buildings. After arriving in a different part of the city he finally slowed down. He waited behind a corner to see if anyone had come after him. After several minutes of waiting nobody came. He made his way to the park.

“I’m supposed to be the one shadowing and keeping an eye on people. How have the tables turned so fast?” He spent the rest of the night creeping through the city streets, but the feeling of being pursued never came back. At the break of dawn he returned home, not finding anything useful, only the feeling of being watched remained with him.

In his room he found Eon sleeping on his bed as usual. For a minute he just stood still and stared at the cat.

“I really feel like I should hate this cat from the bottom of my heart. But somehow I just can’t make myself keep mad at it. Even when it keeps things from me and makes me do all those terrible things I can’t help but feel like it’s somehow keeping me in mind,” he thought to himself. “Am I being a fool?” He walked towards his bed, lent over the cat and gently patted its head and back, but the cat didn’t wake up. He saw his eldritch reflection in the mirror, reminding him that it was time to reapply the makeup. He rummaged around the drawer for the box and sorted all of the items on the table. While applying he realized that he was starting to run low on some of them. He wrote down the names of all that he’d need to buy.

“I thought I could start saving some money now that I don’t have to eat any more, but now between the traps, makeup and even animal food, I’m spending way more than before,” he grumbled to himself as he was applying the makeup. He was already able to insert the contact lens without even looking into a mirror, but it still made him feel a bit squeamish. After he was done he cooked the food for the cats and prepared it. When he was setting it outside for Ruta and Mira they were playfully rubbing against his legs and meowed until he scratched them behind their ears. After he was finished he grabbed some extra money for the new makeup and left for the faculty.