My Everyday Anomie (Part 2)

The multi-horned, purple Hodag crossed her arms with a huff. Beside her, the golden Jackalope spat out a wad of gum and combed back the fur between her antlers.

Past the silhouettes of the two bullies, Kiro saw… well, it was hard to see much of anything. Shadows from the alleyway shrouded most of the third person’s features. All he could see were two blue triangles jutting out of their head.

Cat ears, maybe?

The third person outstretched their arms and spoke in a shrill, but furious tone. “Leave the poor thing alone!”

A girl’s voice.

“This is our spot!” The Hodag placed her hands on her hips as she pressed her face towards the cornered girl. “And you’re in it!”

The cat-eared girl’s feet slid back, but she stood her ground. “This cat-”

“Huh?!” The Hodag cupped one of her massive claws next to her ear. “Speak up!”

“This cat made its home here!” Their victim sounded like she had to yell to speak at all. “You can’t stop me from feeding it.”

“Really? Can’t I now, princess?” the Hodag yelled. “You and that stray don’t belong on our turf. Now how about you tip-toe back to your castle before you get hurt?”

“How about you go back to juvie?” the cat-eared girl whispered under her breath.

Kiro smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.

Now she’s done it!

“You little gutter rat!”

The Hodag grabbed at the girl’s collar, eliciting a gasp. Now that there was no more room between the two of them, Kiro could see the girl went limp, as if all the fight had been knocked out of her.

As the Hodag raised a fist, the Jackalope gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Birch.” The Jackalope shook her head. “Relax. We don’t know who she is.”

“She’s dead meat is what she is!”

“I texted Maia.” The Jackalope raised her phone. “She’s on her way.”

The Hodag froze. She snarled at the Jackalope.

“I can’t let this go, Sally.” The Hodag jerked her shoulder away from the Jackalope’s grasp. “What if Mad Dog comes and finds this chick trying to snoop on our plans?”

The Hodag shoved the horned girl to the ground, forcing a yelp out of her. The Jackalope towered over her.

“Apologize,” the Jackalope said. “If you do, we might let you go.”

The cat-eared girl stayed glued to the floor.

“You heard her.” The Hodag pointed to the ground. “Get on your hands and knees. And apologize.”

She shook in place. “F-for what?”

Kiro could see a vein pop out of the side of the Hodag’s jagged, purple head.

Don’t be an idiot! Just apologize and get it over with!

Yet, even as the Hodag grit her teeth, the corners of her lips morphed into a wicked grin. The Jackalope noticed her bizarre change in expression.

“Birch…”

“I know, Sally.” The Hodag stuck her hand into a nearby dumpster. “But cute, prissy girls like her make me sick.”

“She’s not the one who did any of that to us.”

The Hodag dug her hand out. In her palm was a green glob of… just about everything that used to be edible.

“Maybe not. But girls like her are all the same, treating us like dirt!” She snarled, her voice wavering as she weighed the goop in her palm. “They chew us up and spit us back out, like whatever the hell this is.”

The Hodag flung the spoiled mush with the ferocity of a professional baseball player.

Splat!

The cat-eared girl screeched as the waste made perfect contact with her chest. The Hodag did it again, this time digging deeper into the dumpster.

Splat!

Another hit, another screech. Kiro looked away.

“What’s wrong?!” The Hodag yelled as she dug her hand in for a third round. “I can feed strays too!”

Kiro grabbed at the side of his sketchbook hard enough to crumple the pages. The third Splat made him flinch again. He wanted to stop it, but…

Splat!

By the fourth, the girl’s shrieks died down into shaky sobs.

To hell with it!

Kiro lowered his chin and tightened his throat. Then, with the lowest voice he could muster:

“Greetings! It is I, Professor Lovecleft! If you don’t cease such… malicious activities at once, the authorities shall be promptly informed!”

Dead silence. Kiro froze in place.

WHY DID I DO THAT?!

“Damn it!” The Hodag yelled. “Sally, let’s bail! I can’t get suspended again!”

I’M A GENIUS!

“Birch, that’s not him.” The Jackalope made sure to be nice and slow with her sentence.

“H-huh? How’re you so sure? He’s using those big words and everything!”

“Would Mr. L really call himself ‘Professor Lovecleft’?”

More silence. The Hodag pointed towards Kiro’s direction.

“WHO’S SPYIN' ON US?!”

The Jackalope sighed.

Kiro’s heart pounded in his chest. Adrenaline nailed his legs to the ground.

What do I do? What do I do?! WHAT DO I DO?!

He could hear them slowly stepping their way towards him. Was he really going to run away? But if he didn’t now, he’d-!

“Whaddya think you’re doing?” came a voice from directly behind him.

Kiro’s head snapped towards its source. As he looked up, every bit of color left his face.

There she stood, in all five feet and eight inches of her scrappy glory. A smudge on her cheek, a bandage over the bridge of her leather button nose, and a snarl on her wide, canine lips. Two floppy ears hung from the top of her head, draped over a straight curtain of hair that feathered out in snags and stray strands toward the bottom. Her shirt was two sizes too big, and tufts of reddish-brown fur poked out through holes in her jeans. Kiro couldn’t tell if her clothes were fashionable or falling-apart, but he knew all too well who he was facing.

Mad Dog.

“I…” Kiro’s jaw quivered. “I-!”

With one arm, Mad Dog lifted him off the ground, and smashed him into the wall beside them. As Kiro slumped over, she stepped into the alleyway, her glare piercing through the dark.

The Hodag’s face lit up. “Mad Dog!”

Her enthusiasm didn’t carry over to Mad Dog. Mad Dog stood still, her eyes slowly scanning over every detail of the mess.

“Get this, Mad Dog!” The Hodag pointed at the cat-eared girl. “This spoiled princess was squatting on our spot! And when we told her to move, she told us to shove off like she’s better than us! So we decided to rough her up a bit, and-”

Mad Dog bared her fangs. “And you think that makes us better than her?”

“Aren’t you angry too?!” The Hodag puffed up her chest. “Can’t you see that she deserved-!”

WHAM!

Mad Dog’s fist met the Hodag’s chest with the force of a racecar piston. The Hodag flew backwards past her victim and crumpled into a pile in the shadows of the alleyway.

“Birch!” The Jackalope yelled as she ran to her side.

“We leave others out of it. Not drag them in.” Mad Dog pulled her arm back, cracking her knuckles. “Don’t forget where you came from.”

The cat-eared girl shot to her feet and bolted past Mad Dog. She kept her stance low, her face buried in the kitten clutched in her arms. Her tears glistened as she ran past, and her ears practically dangled off the side of her head as she rounded the corner.

Kiro’s eyes widened. He took one more good look as she started to grow distant.

Those aren’t ears!

“Hey, wait!” Kiro hastily picked up his sketchbook as he scrambled off the ground. “Stop!”

Mad Dog’s eyes seemed almost glazed over as she watched him run off. And yet, her brows were furrowed as if she was deep in thought.

The Jackalope bore an expression of simultaneous concern and relief. “I appreciate the help, but… did you really have to hit her?”

"Tsk.” Mad Dog started skulking away, hands in her pockets. “What a pain...”

The Jackalope shook the Hodag in her arms.

“Birch? Why aren’t you breathing?”

“Mad… Dog.” Her eyelids fluttered open, wide and sparkling. “... IS SO COOL!”

“Birch…” The Jackalope exhaled, half in relief and half in second-hand embarrassment. She flicked her partner’s ear. “Get your head checked. Seriously.”

Kiro was just about ready to have a heart attack.

He held himself up against a ceramic statue of a pudgy pizza chef. Going from the dim, otherworldly alleyway back into the bustling city center was like being plunged into a community pool on family night. Everywhere he looked, everywhere he stumbled, there was another rushing mass of monstrous pedestrians. The pedestrians seemed doubled in the ground-floor reflections of the dozens of sleek, grayscale skyscrapers around them. If he didn’t make it to somewhere where he could catch his breath, he might not make it back to school at all.

Seeing an opening between the tails of two elderly Griffins, he made a break for the street corner. Avoiding a baby carriage that belched fire, Kiro managed to find his way onto one of the less clogged arteries in the city’s heart. With enough of a runway to gather speed, the boy threw himself along the streets, turning onto whichever one was the least crowded. When he finally stopped to look around, he recognized the scattered trees and bushes past the benches in front of him, alongside the waterfront to his rear.

This was… the park?

Am I a MILE away from school?!

The thought teetered on his mind until it collapsed with him onto one of the benches. Kiro hung his head back, his arms splayed on each side.

“I’m… so out of shape…” he told himself between desperate breaths of air.

It’s not my fault all the best Megatroid reruns are on during prime gym hours.

After another minute of uncontrolled breathing, Kiro let out one last, shaky exhale. He blankly stared towards the variously shaped clouds gliding across the blue sky.

Blue. Waterfront. Trees. Nature.

Nature never changed. Only people.

People. Lovecleft. Remedial Class. Dreams.

“What am I doing?”

The words slipped out of his mouth, surprising even him. And just as involuntary and immediately:

That girl.

Or rather, what his brief glimpse remembered of her. The sight of her “ears” kept digging into him. Kiro groaned.

I’m losing it, aren’t I?

Rustling at Kiro’s back made him shoot up and straighten himself. When he turned, he met the beady, black eyes of a small, brown bear. The cub peered out of a bush, his snout smeared in purple.

“Blake!” a woman’s voice from nearby called.

The almost-child clawed his way through the bush, making a mad dash towards the bench beside Kiro’s. Kiro watched as, what appeared to be Mama Bear, scolded her Baby. She wiped his mouth with a cloth as Papa Bear pulled some sandwiches out from a basket he was carrying.

Kiro scoffed at himself. Three bears, having a picnic at a park. Of course.

DEFINITELY losing it.

His arms tingled with the weight of his sketchbook, as if it was reminding him of its presence. Kiro turned it over to its front, his eyes meeting its sparkling, wavy gradient of rainbow hues. His fingers traced the rough, layered paint on the cover, steadying his breath. Plastered at the center was a white rectangle, bearing a single word written in black sharpie ink:

MONSTERPEDIA

Glancing at the Three Bears one last time, he flipped the sketchbook open. Pages and pages of various Monsters in varying poses breezed past with his thumb. With each sheet, their designs grew in detail and intricacy.

Kiro finally reached a blank page, only a dozen or so sheets from the very back. He pulled his graphite pencil from the book’s wire loop, spinning it between his middle and index finger before kissing the lead to paper. The young artist’s hand blurred between half-second glimpses at his subjects.

Bench. Basket. Sandwiches. Picnic.

Every detail his mind dissected formed itself on the page.

Baby Bear. Mama Bear. Papa Bear.

They were already finishing up, but so was Kiro. His pace and focus were unwavering. Two minutes was all he needed.

Family.

SNAP!

Kiro dropped his pencil, hand shaking.

“Ah!”

He picked it back up and immediately noticed the damage. The lead point was completely snapped off. It was only for an instant, but he had put a lethal amount of pressure on the graphite. On the page, a smudge remained from when the pencil gave in, just before he could finish drawing Mama Bear’s face.

Incomplete.

Kiro’s sketchbook fell to his side. He felt shivers crawl up his spine, but not from the chilly air. The moment he looked up, the rest of his body went still as stone.

There, at the bench farthest from his, were those unmistakable blue cat ears. No, not ears.

Headphones.

Kiro slowly walked towards her. His heart thrummed harder than when he was in that alleyway. It grew louder with each step, as he inched closer and closer. And just when he was a foot away-

Mew!

A small, white kitten leapt into the air, landing gracefully on the pavement between the two of them.

The girl shot off the bench, her crooked “ears” slipping off her head as she moved. She knelt down to pick up the kitten, but stopped halfway after noticing him. She lifted her head, expecting the worst.

Silky dark hair waterfalled over her face, bristling with electric blue shadows in the daylight. Her black stockings were covered past the knee by a modest blue skirt. Her arms, clad in long, white sleeves, retreated to the chest of her crisp, dark sweater vest. Her lips parted in surprise.

Small, pink lips.

Apprehensively, she raised her eyes to meet his.

Vibrant blue eyes.

Immediately, her pupils shrunk, and her face reddened.

Flushed cheeks on a canvas of pale, peach skin.

The two of them stared at each other, their silence telling them almost all they needed to know. Almost.

This was my world.

She opened her mouth to speak first.

Everything was normal enough... except for one complication.

“Are you…?” she asked.

Everyone was a monster…

They finished their question in unison.

… except for her.

“...Real?”