All Monsters Are Human

act one: IV

"Victor!" i called out, and started crossing the road.

i saw him pull down his red scarf, and his mouth moved, but I couldn't hear what he was saying.
I managed to cross the road safely, bouncing towards him like a puppy. I normally wouldn't compare myself to a puppy, but this was the most fitting description.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Why?"

"Other people will see you staring up into air."

"Oh, right." i said, and couldn't help but smile sheepishly at the thought that other people would see me talking to air.

"I find you very strange Lucas." he remarked, casually walking next to me as we both look at the mannequins, cakes and other thingamabobs displayed at various shop windows.

"Really? How?"

"First of all, you know I'm a ghost, yet you're still talking to me and not running away."

"People are annoying."

"Ahaha, i guess that's a good point."

I laughed, and the lady who walked past me gave me a funny look. Victor chuckled, and i sort of playfully punched him, expecting my hand to go through his arm since he was a ghost and all that, but no. He felt somewhat solid, bones, muscles and everything.

"What are you doing?" he asked, then i realized i was squeezing his bicep because i was trying to see if it was real.

"Oh, sorry." i said, releasing his arm. Everyone on the street was staring at me now, and probably thinking 'oh, poor kid, stress has gotten into his head', or something like that.

"You should stop talking to me, unless you want to be thrown into an asylum." he remarked, speeding up his pace.

"We could just go to a place where no one can see us, or me for that matter."

"Just go. It's best if you don't talk to me anyway."

I frowned, and stood in front of him to keep him from walking forward.

"Why? Are you...do you feel unhappy to see me?"

"No, that's not it."

"W-well, you sound like you are..." i said softly, and my head drooped.
He sighed, and pinched his nose as if he was dealing with a little kid, or in this case, me.

"I'm not unhappy to see you Lucas."
"In fact...it feels good to see you again."

his lips curled into a smile, and there was sort of a pretty glint of white in his eyes. and even if he smiled like that, the shadow of sadness never left his features. Strangely, his smile was contagious, the warmth of it spreading to me slowly, and it set off a spark somewhere in my brain, and in my heart.

"Lucas? You there?"

i blinked, and was brought back down to earth by his voice. At some point, he started to walk and i followed.

"We need to exchange numbers."

"...pardon?"

"Numbers. Phone numbers. Can i have yours?"

"A what? F...fuh...foe-"

"A phone."

"...what's that?" he asked, a curious look on his face.

"So you're telling me...you don't know what a phone is?"

"No clue."

I stopped walking out of shock. Then i remembered, ah right, he was a ghost.

"A-ah, well... it's like a.....um...you know what, here I'll show you mine."

I dug into my pocket to fish out an ugly blue flip phone that has seen better days. I just realized how gross it looked, and how the layer of blue was peeling off in certain corners.
My phone was immediately snatched out of my hands by a wide-eyed Victor, and it was quite amusing to see how he handled it like some weird specimen.

"My lord..." he muttered to himself, and he flinched when he flipped it open.

"I think I've broken it."

"No, you're supposed to open it like that." i laughed, and he was still fumbling with my phone.

"Ohh, i see."

We kept walking next to each other, until i found a bench along the pavement, so we took a break there.

"I think I'll get one of these. You know...um...to...'exchange numbers'."

"I don't know if they still sell them around here."

......a wave of silence.
even if it's just a hovering silence of unsaid words, it brought a soothing calmness to me, to the both of us.
Because of the cold weather, we were huddled close together, and i rubbed my hands to keep them warm.

Then i remembered, oh no.
This was a bench, in a park.
and rule number 2, was to avoid all parks.

"U-Um, i think i should get going Victor. I'm sorry, i wish we could talk longer."

"Then I'll get going as well. I think we'll see each other again?"

"Of course, i promise."

i extended my pinkie finger.
and he looked really confused as to what he was supposed to do.

"This is called..." i grabbed his hand and wrapped his pinkie finger around mine.
"A pinkie promise."

"A pinkie...promise?"

"Yep." i said, smiling instead of laughing at his perplexed face.

"Wait."

He took off the red scarf around his neck, and wrapped it around me slowly, his fingers brushing across my skin. My face grew red, and my body grew stiff. The scarf was big enough to cover my nose and my shoulders, hell I could make it into a sweater if i tried.

"It's cold."

"W-won't you be cold?"

"I'll be fine. I'll see you around then?"

"Y-yeah..." I breathed, did a little 'Awkward Goodbye Wave', and turned away.

~~~~~~~~~

The short, blonde boy walked home that day, unaware of his pain, and his sorrow.

"I'm sorry."

but somehow those words just couldn't escape from the depths of his heart.

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///Act 1; end