OBLITUS

Night 2

"Charlie", I heard my Mom call from downstairs. I looked at the ceiling and walked down the few steps.  "Ali", my little brother, Edward, mumbled through his two front teeth when I entered the kitchen. My younger sister, Delhia, walked in a few seconds later. "Oh", she said as soon as she saw me, "I thought you were dead". I stared at her before looking at my mother, expecting her to say something. She shrugged her shoulders. "She isn't completely wrong... We barely get to see you", she admitted. Edward threw some of his mashed potatoes at my sister's face. "Same", I whispered as I smiled, resulting in him giggling for a solid 2 minutes. I pushed the light brown curls away from his face, and cleaned up his chin with a towel. 

I sat down and blankly stared at the empty chair in front of me. "Is Dad ever coming home", I asked. My mother turned around, an offended look on her face. "Ask him yourself", she answered when someone knocked at the door. Delhia stood up and walked towards the front door. After a short pause, she shouted: "CHARLIE, THERE'S A DUDE FOR... YOU, APPARENTLY". I got up.

"Hey", Ashton said when he saw me, "Nice pants". I could feel a slight sarcasm in his voice. "They're... uhm... My pajamas", I replied nervously. "You could start a trend with those", he joked before giggling as I stood there and blushed. I could feel my Mom and sister listening from the kitchen, so I grabbed my shoes and left the house in my sleeping gear. After a few meters spent quietly walking next to Ashton, I figured someone had to say something. "Not that I don't like you but... Why are you here", I asked, still looking at the ground. I couldn't seem to look him in the eyes; I felt unsafe at the sight of the golden stains surrounding his iris. He pushed his hair on the side as he looked in the distance. "You'll never look at me, right", I was surprised to hear him ask. "Why are you here", I repeated, trying my best to avoid his question. He smiled at the ground, understanding he wouldn't get an answer from me. "I wanted to know how you were feeling about the whole Oblitus thing", he finally replied. 

I could feel him next to me; not just his presence, but his whole body. Ashton and Michael had that in common: they seemed to diffuse some kind of human heat around them. I suggested we sat down by the river, and that's exactly what we did. I cleared my throat. "Are they going to hear what I'm about to say", I asked. He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm completely freaked out. Completely, absolutely, truly, madly, deeply freaked out", I confessed, stressing every adverb that was leaving my mouth. He giggled again. "There's something I can't seem to understand... I know we all have a different perception of fear, but yesterday... You and Michael, you were so... peaceful", I kept going. A car passed us by on the other side of the river, and I'm almost convinced that I saw the reflection of Ashton's eyes on one of the doors when the lights hit his pupils. I didn't say anything. "You know...", he started, "Weird stuff happen in this city and I know you've always lived here but I feel like you're still pulling the wrong strings". "What strings am I pulling, Sherlock?", I asked as I was slowly getting curious and terrified once again.

He looked at the stars and pointed at one of them. "I'm sure you've never believed in aliens, have you?", he wondered at loud. "Of course not", I replied, "I don't believe in paranormal activies". He nodded in approval, put his huge hand on my shoulder and stood up. I stared at him from 6 feet under. "Not everything has to be rational, Charlie", he whispered. I guess you could tell I was confused by the way he started giggling again. "You don't make sense", I said, grabbing his hand to help me get up. "Not everything makes sense", he whispered again. "You're definitely part of that not everything", I joked, smiling. He laughed as usual. "If you ever need to talk about it", Ashton started, "You know where to find me". I elbowed him playfully. "In the woods where the trees stopped growing?", I kidded. He stared at me and instantly stopped laughing before walking away without a single word. I watched his silhouette getting smaller and smaller until it had completely faded in the dark of the night.

I was walking home alone, looking at the lights go down in the houses on both sides of the street. Everything was quiet, and I was enjoying it. I could hear the wind whistle in the branches of the few trees my neighbors had planted last summer, and their cat walking on the pavements, its little paws hitting the ground with a constant motion. "Hey, Charlie", a voice said. I turned around: no one. I knew exactly where this was going. I tried not to shake as I started walking faster. "You think walking faster will change anything at all?", it asked. "We're not douchebags", another voice whispered. This voice almost had a lisp, and was a bit higher-pitched than the one I had heard before. Both voices laughed, and I started squeezing my temples. "Is it ever going to stop...", I thought to myself. "Not any time soon", they kept going. I felt like I was being harassed; but from the inside. At this point, all I wanted was to rip my brain out of my skull. It was like paranoia, but with voices that weren't mine; and thoughts I'd never think of.

When I finally reached the front door of my house, I walked in, threw my shoes at the bottom of the staircase and rushed to my room. I curled up on my bed and stayed still. "Do you like ghost stories?", one of the voices asked before the one replied: "Any monster would do the job too". I grabbed my pillow and burried my head under it, trying my best to cover my ears. "Why me", I sobbed. No one replied. I stopped crying and walked downstairs, hoping my Mom would still be there.

"Mom?", I called. I could hear footsteps getting closer, so I grabbed a yogurt in the fridge and sat down. "She's with Ed", my Dad answered. I sniffed a few times and opened the lid of the yogurt. "Dad, this is going to sound crazy but...", I started before swallowing, "Have you ever felt like you didn't belong in your own body? I mean... Have you ever felt like your thoughts were ruled by someone else? Like you couldn't even control your own life?". I blushed a little as I asked these questions since I felt stupid, but I deeply needed someone to reassure me. "We stopped checking for monsters under our beds when we realized they were inside us", he quoted as an answer. That didn't help.

"Not everything has to be rational, Charlie"... Ashton's voice echoed in my mind. 

"We stopped checking for monsters under our beds when realize they were inside us".

The reflection in the car.

The reaction when I joked about the woods.

The complete absence of fear in their shiny eyes when we heard the voices.

The warmth of their skin.

The Oblitus were monsters, Ashton and Michael were monsters and I... I was becoming one too.