Loathed Intrusion

The tall man brown haired man looked stupid standing there alone in the hallway. The man’s appearance was also pristine- as if he’d just gotten off of work, but slightly ruffled up with slight beads of sweat formed on his forehead and pinstriped suit wrinkled a bit. The suit was a royal blue with a white collared shirt underneath, the trousers were the same shade of royal blue. His hair was the same style it’d been all those years ago, neatly done short brown hair with a side part on the left, with bangs only on the right.

Oh dear, Catheris had avoided him for a reason, an overwhelming wave of confusion hit him.

First off, why on earth was he here? Truth be told, Catheris didn't even think he’d meet Joshua again after college. He was not about to get into that whole mess ever again, too many ladies the guy would date and too much drama, who even dates someone named Joshua?? It was shocking to even know he was back, even more shocking that he came to his doorstop, unannounced, after years of no contact since high school. Perhaps he got booted out by a recently made ex-girlfriend. On top of that the only person he told that he was moving was his best friend, so how’d he know?

“...Fine.” Catheris reluctantly agreed after opening his mouth, saying nothing while thinking what he should do; before closing his eyes to heave a deep sigh. “-Just give me a minute though, I have to put away a few things.”

After a few seconds he’d come back after placing his blanket down on his bed. Catheris began to tidy up his bangs before waving his hand towards himself to signify that Joshua could come inside. The man began taking off his suit’s jacket to reveal the full white collared shirt.

Catheris planned on sitting the brown haired man down on the couch, however slight panic arose in him once he realized what he’d had left on his coffee table.

It was apparent that he had forgotten about the sheer amount of magazines he had in his collection, it was truly.. something.

Joshua walked over, hunching over the coffee table to get a closer look “Ah, shouldn't we clean this up? Focusing on work so much when you haven't even gotten your office set up yet is something, you could have done things online on your personal computer..” .

‘We’?. He was already sweeping up everything on the table and arranging them into a neat pile, Joshua placed the magazines in a corner of the table before jumping backwards onto the leather seat of the couch.

…Right, Catheris was an adult with adult duties. Thankfully he was understanding now, such gentleness in how he picked up Catheris’s prized collection.. not that immature childish kid jumping to tease him at any given moment anymore. Besides they all focused on men’s fashion anyways. Catheris was now wondering why he thought the magazines would be mistaken for some other sort of intent, but some sort of magazines are associated with that.

Without missing a beat, Joshua was making himself too comfortable, “Mmmn, have there been any good shows lately”.

‘Watch the news, and get the fuck out.’

Catheris never would have said that out loud, but shoo shoo, leave already you bastard. But of course, he gave the remote control to Joshua, and Catheris could finally go and fix something up for the guest while said guest was distracted by the TV.

“There's so many stories like Portrait of the Lady with Blue Eyes these days on the news.” groaned in a monotone voice with a subtle complaining tone, despite that, it looked like Joshua was invested. The brown haired man’s eyes could be observed glued onto the screen when Catheris whipped his head to see what he was doing.

In the kitchen area, was Catheris about to pour water from the water boiler into the loose leaf tea maker with a slight layer of sweetly scented tea leaves inside when he heard that. Certainly more stories have become more prevalent over the years. Before, it was unheard of but it surely was considered the norm; undisputed by whether one believed the ‘cases’ or not.

About the Portrait of the Lady with Blue Eyes- It was a case that was a contender for being the strongest incident to support the claim that something supernatural actually exists.

The questions piled up about all the victims of the phenomenon and about the root of the incidents, as the incidents are executed in a flawless manner, perhaps due to subconscious thoughts.

That’s what the police suspected, that it was a mental thing coming with new times as there have been actual injuries with the reports, leaving the victim with no memories of before the incidents were committed. Before the incident that sparked the report, the victim’s overall state declined, such as an average drinker turning into an overindulgent drunk. All reports had something in common decline, the victim’s mental health.

All things considered, the happenings are under the label of a ‘false alarm’, because you cannot correlate possession reports with sudden death by demons without it sounding like utter bullshit.

They may have gotten a bit of possession reports in the past before, but only recently have they skyrocketed. Besides the fact it did sound like a joke at first, the worldwide phenomenon had consequences and could not be taken lightly. The contents of the reports even varied depending on what region they took place in, and Virosiad in particular had ‘Shadow Demons’. In fact all regions had slight activity of “Shadow Demons' but it was Virosiad’s specialty.

Catheris complained, “It’s like a story about becoming a trendsetter, all Reena complains about these days is of comics being shitty copies and pasted versions of each other.”

“Reena is the one you talked about with a Paranormal Investigation service, no? Seems like an utter scam to me.” Joshua scoffed, eyes still glued onto the screen.

…

And who was he to talk about Reena in that manner?

If it was a scam to the clients, it’d also be a scam of Reena’s time; Catheris thought she genuinely believed in the stories at this point.

Now, he didn't know much of the industry, if you could even call it that. But the whole thing was pretty normalized, for whatever reason it was normalized was also the reason why women were mainly in charge on Virosiad. Except Joshua didn't know anything about the place unfortunately.

After a bit of silence between the two, Catheris pathetically mustered up something to keep the conversation from drying out, “-Still though, there must be a bit of truth to the cases.”

Ah- it seemed like that had struck a nerve of Joshua’s. He leaned over the couch; slumping his arms over it to whine at Catheris.

“Oi, a case? There's nothing to even investigate, they’re just worthless reports. Don't tell me she’s brainwashing you too. Look I know she’s been your friend for a while, but that’s like how the stories of people selling essential oils to their friends go-'' Before the sentence cut off in Catheris’s mind, he spaced out while Joshua dragged on with the ranting.

It sounded like mumbled background noise to Catheris, who was rolling his eyes out of Joshua's view.

-Shouldn't have Joshua heard all the weird Virosiad folktales from his father by now? Then again it must've been hard to even get him to listen, what a hectic stay at home dad life it must've been.

The smell of black tea had dispersed throughout the apartment, the scent that wafted through gone as the slightly translucent white of steam was trapped under the lid of the tea maker, making the glass it was made of appear fogged up. And Catheris unwillingly had to pick up a bit of what the other man was speaking of.

Aiyah, randomly showing up to his place uninvited spewing bullshit. Never mind that, Catheris had some questions for the uninvited guest after he set down the singular teacup filled with hot tea next to the fancy sugar cube jar. It was the most convenient spot, alright?

“And why are you here suddenly? Don't tell me you’re running away from an ex again.” Catheris sighed.

“...Come on, don't be like that. Mrs. Orial told me to come back and help you of course.” Joshua clarified in a buddy-buddy tone, Catheris could tell Joshua was masking the fact that he did not want to get kicked out. Unfortunately, whether or not Joshua was going to be kicked out or not depended on Catheris’s thoughts.

But.. Catheris hadn't even told his mother he was moving.

Catheris nodded, somewhat grasping the situation from what he assumed, “..Did Reena say anything about me to my mom?”

“How you were too weak to move stuff, something like that. But it seems I came too late-” Joshua replied. “-or that you’re not as weak as Reena thought.”