[257 hours, 29 minutes]

[Dilla]

Two days. Two days since Blake found Tyson ripped in two and disemboweled in a tree. It was a gruesome thing, yes, but kind of along the lines of what I draw sometimes, so I'm not too unsettled.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sad about Tyson's death. We weren't that close, but we were good friends. I just know how to see past the emotion and realize that nothing that lives around here could've possibly slaughtered Tyson like that. I didn't know what it was. But it wasn't some animal, that's for sure. I went to see the body myself. He was cut clean through the stomach. Like a... large blade had been used, perhaps. Something much larger than a knife, and much less messy and bloody than a chainsaw.

But the question is: who could've done something like that? And how?

Luckily for me, Tyson was a hunter. And like most hunters, he had trail cameras in the woods. Including an area in quite close proximity to the clearing he'd been found dead in.

I'd gone back out to the clearing and popped the memory chip from the camera, and now I sat in front of my computer. I plugged the chip into the side. When the pictures popped up, it took me a moment to find the right ones - the camera took pictures of every animal that passed its lens, and the woods had lots of deer and rabbits and raccoons. There was a possum or two as well. Eventually, though, I found the correct date and looked through the images.

The first few were just the same. Animals. Deer, mostly, with noses that sniffed at the lens and inquisitive eyes. Until I finally got to about the time Tyson must've been killed.

3/28/24. Camera 3. 12:58 P.M.

My earlier guess about the killer being human? Well, that was immediately proven incorrect by what I saw.

What I saw was a creature that I could only guess must've been of demonic origin. A grey-skinned, demonlike being with crimson horns and wings, a grey tail swaying from beneath a white lab coat that fell to just above its ankles. It was turned and talking to another being, its skin an orange color, with three dark red horns instead of two on its head. Unlike the more sophisticated outfit the demon wore, the orange creature wore a simple dark green hoodie and had pale, yellow scleras with white pupils.

I wasn't really expecting anything in particular, but what the hell am I looking at here?

The pictures weren't videos, but I could tell that the grey demon was talking to the orange one, to see if I could catch anything else that was happening, I kept clicking through the pictures until the orange one seemed to have turned around and left. The grey one was alone now, and it glanced around the clearing. Suddenly a large looking weapon appeared in its hand - a deadly-looking, red bladed scythe with a black handle.

And there's the murder weapon.

Then there seemed to be a gap in the pictures taken. The demon must've walked offscreen. Where Tyson must've been.

Then suddenly there was another picture there.

The demon was back, holding the scythe, which was covered in dark red blood. It was staring directly at the camera. Not like it'd turned around and noticed the camera there - it seemed to have known the whole time that it was being recorded.

In the next image, the demon was smiling. The next, it was gone.

I stared at the empty image for a bit, trying to process the content of the pictures I'd just seen. I've always been a believer in the supernatural. I'd just never expected anything of the sort to be the cause of the death of one of my own friends.

I need to organize this.

I printed out a few of the pictures, specifically the one of the demon staring at the camera, I walked down the hall of my house and turned into the staircase of the cellar. Being certain the door was closed and locked behind me, I found my way down the staircase and to a small corner of the messy cellar.

I set up a bulletin board sometime yesterday. It now hung on the wall in this corner, quite void of... anything, really. I'd taken a picture of what happened to Tyson and put a list of possible suspects on it as well - I didn't want to think any of my own friends would do this, but if I was gonna solve this, I needed an open mind. Alexis always told me that - you can't confirm anyone's innocence unless you have every bit of evidence you can find to prove it. Even now that I had a face to the crime, I had no idea if this thing could be, say, a shapeshifter of some kind. Before this, demons didn't really exist. Now, in my mind, they could be anywhere - I know they're known for their ability to possess a human vessel.

I put the picture of the demon up on the board and used a piece of red string to attach the pin to the list of suspects. On a sticky note, I wrote:

Possession? Shapeshifting? Or just a separate entity?

Genuinely? I had no idea what I was doing. Alexis was the one with the extensive knowledge and experience in crime. I draw colorful animals on DeviantArt for a living. So realistically, I should be asking Alexis for help.

Am I going to?

Probably not.

I love Alexis, and she's as upset as everyone else about Tyson being murdered. I'm not gonna ask her to do anything, she needs some time. For her sake.

Also on the board was another picture - an older one, taken maybe a year or two ago. All of us were in it, minus Milo and Noah (they were at school, I believe), and with the addition of someone else. A man with long-ish brown hair and a very short stubble on his chin, wearing a NASA hoodie and a bracelet bearing the colors of the gay pride flag on his left wrist. He was circled in red.

The accident seems coincidental. It happened almost a year ago, after all. But I just have this feeling that somehow his death is connected to all of this.

Somehow.

I just don't know what.

-

[Blake]

I'd slept in longer than I'd anticipated.

The alarm clock read 10:30 A.M. Usually I wake up around 8. I haven't really been at my most alert and awake, let's be real, but I still find that sad. Not like this is the second time I've lost someone close to me or anything. I should know there's nothing I can do about it, dammit. But I just can't help but feel hopeless right now. First him, and now Tyson. It's barely been a year, and another person's gone. And in an equally horrific fashion.

I found the energy to sit up and get out of bed after a few minutes. I put on my usual hoodie and left my room, rubbing fatigue from my eyes and stepping into the kitchen for some coffee.

The coffee didn't really help with my tiredness like it usually does, but I took it with me anyway as I walked through a different door. Maybe working on something will get my brain back to a non-depressing level of function.

Since we all park our cars away from the houses, the garages that some of these houses were built with were basically useless. So, I put mine to a better use than just storage. I had made it into a sort of workshop, where I kept away-from-work projects and personal tools and such. It is a little cluttered, I'll admit, but it was an organized mess. I knew where things were at least.

In one corner, there was a cloth covering something, exactly sixteen inches in height on a table shoved out of sight of the door. I set my coffee cup on my desk in front of a group picture of all of my friends I had sitting there as I walked over to it, placing my hand on the cloth and gently taking it off.

The piece was an art project I'd been working on for a while. I'd dropped it originally, but on the way here I'd decided I was gonna pick it back up. I'd talked a bit about it with Tyson. He'd really wanted to see it, but I insisted he wait until it was finished. Now that Tyson's... absent, I kind of feel like I need to finish it. For him, at least.

The piece was a quite abstract piece of metal, a few wires in a jumbled mess upon a makeshift stand I'd probably make better later. There were two pieces of metal near the middle of the piece, rectangles that were wrapped around the ends of each other like hands holding. Right now it looked a little just like something I'd tossed together with scraps, but it wasn't very close to finished, being fair. To anyone, it'd look kind of ugly, but all art looks ugly at some point in its making.

I searched around until I found where I'd put my earbuds, plugged them into my phone, and started working. Angel by Aerosmith came on as the first song, and the sounds played around me kept the outside world from reaching my head as I got to work. It took a little bit, but I eventually managed to keep my mind straight as I started getting into what I was doing. My hands sort of moved without me having to consciously control them, and my brain fell into a sort of mindless, peaceful void. A void where everything was as it should be, a world of silence and calm and every non-distressing emotion I could think of.

It was nice.

So nice I almost didn't notice the disturbance towards my right.

I vaguely heard something shift that wasn't in front of me through my earbud. I took the earbud out, looking up from what I was working on and scanning my workspace. From what I could see, nothing was out of order, no one was watching. I shrugged and got back to work.

Then it happened again. Something fell and clattered to the ground, and I turned around in confusion. My coffee cup, empty at this point, luckily, was on the ground, rolling a little as it settled.

Warily glancing around, I slowly walked over to the cup, picking it up and carefully placing it on the table where it had been. I just stared at it for a minute, watching the inanimate mug that most definitely did not move. Then I shook my head, chuckling a little as I turned back to my project.

You're so stressed, it's making you delusional, Blake, I thought to myself. Chill out. Nothing's happening.

But something did happen. Another thing shifted. This time I paused my music, taking both earbuds out and placing my phone on the table next to the few pieces of silver metal I was working with. The room was suddenly silent, the sounds of classic rock guitars muted and replaced with the heavy emptiness of my workshop. It was almost deafening. There was nothing until...

There.

A bright orange eye suddenly realized I was looking directly at it before it disappeared, a fuzzy orange figure running out and through the closed door, leaving me alone again.

My curious instincts kicked in, and immediately I darted towards the door.

"Hey! Wait!"

What was that? I have no clue. Was I going to find out? I mean, I want to. Hopefully it's something I want to encounter and not some beast beyond comprehension.

I burst through the door and saw the orange blob sort of stare at me before darting away again around the corner. I chased it immediately, diving around the corner and out the door of my house. I heard someone call my name from the middle of the grouping of houses, but I ignored them.

The colorful figure led me to the woods before disappearing into the undergrowth. I hesitated there for a split second, thinking about the last time I ran off like this into the woods, but I just shook my head and ran after whatever the thing was. I don't know why I was so set on seeing it. It was just... something in those eyes was familiar. I couldn't quite place my finger on it, but...

Not paying attention to where I was going, my foot caught on a root and, catching me off-guard, started to send me to the ground. But then I stopped in midair. Somehow I already knew whose hands were keeping me from hitting the ground before I looked up and saw his eyes staring down at me with amusement.

"Is this gonna become a regular thing?" Akik chuckled.

"Well, that depends on how long you're planning on following me like this," I laughed a little as well. He helped me to my feet, and I looked around to see if the thing was still in sight.

"Being fair, this time you happened to run into me," Akik said. He tilted his head a little, glancing around as well. "Whatcha looking for?"

"I... I'm not quite sure," I admitted. "There was something- someone- in my workshop. I followed them out here, but they're gone now."

"Hm," Akik sighed a little. He hesitated. "Uh... how have you been? I haven't seen you in a few days."

I exhaled, rubbing my forehead. "I've... been better. It's rough, really. I've known Tyson for longer than I can remember, and now..."

Akik put a hand on my shoulder in comfort, smiling with sympathy. "Hey. I get it. The feeling will pass. Loss is hard, but if you're strong, and I know you are, you'll make it through, alright?"

I smiled back at him sadly. "Thanks."

"How have you been doing?"

"Uh..." Akik paused. "...I mean, the same as usual, just alone at the ship. Not much else to do, really."

"That's... a little sad."

"...yeah. But it is what it is, I guess."

I thought for a moment, wanting to help him out a little. "Wanna come with me? I can show you what I'm working on at home."

Akik seemed surprised by the suggestion. "Uh- are... are you sure? W-what if someone sees me?"

"They won't," I assured him. "I'll bring you in through my back door so that no one'll see you come in."

Akik hesitated, seeming to contemplate refusing. But after a moment of thought he slowly shook his head. "Yeah. Yeah, sure, I'll come with you."

A bit of happiness sparked in my chest at his agreement. "Cool. Here, come on."

I did eventually need him to lead us back to the houses - a bit funny that he knew the property better than me or any of my friends - but we made it back pretty quickly. Without being spotted by anyone gathered in the clearing outside the houses - from my place I could see Alexis, Malachi, and Noah sitting at one of the picnic tables - I managed to bring Akik to my house.

Almost immediately he ran into a small problem - quite literally - as he hit his head on the doorframe.

He was... a little tall for the doorways.

I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Uh... you need some help?"

Akik rubbed his forehead with a slight grimace. He laughed as well, though. "Don't worry, this happens all the time. Though usually the doorways are slightly taller on Xero. I guess you guys are generally shorter here than back at home, huh?"

"Guess so," I shrugged.

Akik managed to duck and go through the door, and, thankfully, the interior was tall enough for him to walk upright, though he kept his wings close so as to not knock anything from the walls. The walls didn't have too much, but there were a few photos hanging up that Akik very carefully watched out for.

After once again hitting his head on a door frame and me apologizing a hundred times about it, we finally made it back to my workshop. My phone was on the table still, and a message had popped up on the lock screen.

Malachi: Why were you going into the woods again?

I sighed, clicking on the box and replying:

No reason. Needed fresh air.

I hoped he wouldn't question it as I silenced my phone and set it back down.

"This is your workshop, then?" Akik said, looking around curiously.

"Yeah," I said. I grabbed a stray wrench from a table and put it in a drawer. "Sorry it's a bit messy, I'm not the best at organization."

"Oh, no worries," Akik assured me. "You said you had a project you were working on, too?"

"Oh, right," I said. I walked over to the metal abstraction that was my art project, and Akik followed. "It's... not quite finished, obviously, and I haven't worked on it for a while before now, so it's really a work in progress."

Akik observed the piece, eyes staring at the thing with wide curiosity and inquisitiveness. "It's... really cool. Even unfinished."

"Thanks, I guess," I smiled at him. I felt a little awkward in the moment, as I always do when people compliment anything I do.

Akik brought his gaze down to the sketches I had on the table - planning sketches of the final product. "How long have you been working on this?"

"Few months, but like I said, I sort of put it on hiatus when life got a bit busy," I replied. "Plus, I... haven't been back here in a while, so I never really got a chance to work with it."

"I thought you lived here?" Akik said.

"Well, it's the home I think of most as a home," I shrugged. "Ironic, considering I'm here the least. Tyson and I work at the same place in town the next state over, and there's really not many places around here to get an engineering or mechanic job, so we usually rent an apartment up there and come down here for gatherings and such."

"Huh," Akik nodded. "Is there a reason you all got together now?"

"There's a total eclipse in about a week and a half," I explained. "We weren't in totality up there, and some of my other friends weren't either, so we decided to come down here."

"That's pretty cool. I guess you all live in other places as well, then?"

"Lionel lives down here full time, he owns the property, and, when he's not in school, Milo stays with him. Other than that, yeah, we're sort of scattered around this part of the country."

"Ah." Akik's gaze flickered around the room, seeming to observe it again. His eyes landed on the picture that was sitting on the desk I'd placed my coffee mug on. He stepped towards it, almost seeming sad for a moment before he pointed at someone in the picture.

"Who's that?"

I glanced at the picture as well. He was pointing at someone near the front with Tyson and I, a man with a goofy smile, brown hair, and brown eyes.

I exhaled, hesitating. "That's... Sam. He's not here right now."

"Why not? If you don't mind me asking?" He queried.

I wanted to tell him. I really did. But as I opened my mouth, nothing came out. So I just sighed, looking to the floor. Luckily, I didn't seem to have to say anything before Akik realized what I was implying.

"Oh... I-I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You didn't know. I just..." I ran my fingers through my hair, bringing some stray blonde strands from my face. "I haven't really... thought about him much recently until... Tyson."

I glanced at the project on the table. "He's part of the reason I started this. Sort of an 'in memorial' project for him. And... now for Tyson too, I guess. I feel bad that I'm still working on it, but I couldn't really get the design right until a few months ago. And even now, I don't know if it's right."

Akik stared down at the ground sadly for a moment, seeming guilty for asking anything, before reaching and putting a hand on my shoulder, meeting my eyes.

"I think the project's wonderful. And I'm sure that both Sam and Tyson would've loved it."

I sighed, feeling a little grateful to hear that, even if it was from someone who literally never knew the people I spoke of. I smiled up at him, trying to keep my sad emotions down. "I hope they would've."

After that depressing conversation, the rest of the time Akik spent in the workshop was more lighthearted. We didn't bring up Tyson or Sam again, and for the first time in a few days I didn't feel entirely depressed about it. Akik told me a few stories from Xero - which I find myself enjoying quite a bit, his home planet seemed very interesting to me - and I told him more about Earth. I'd think he'd get bored of hearing what I had to say about it, but he listened intently and asked more questions than I knew answers to. I guess it would be interesting to him, considering this was all entirely new for someone like him.

We talked for maybe an hour more before Akik determined he should leave. Despite me kind of really wanting him to stay, I didn't want to keep him if he wanted or needed to leave, so I said bye to him, and he disappeared back into the woods.

I hoped to see him again soon. I quite enjoyed his company.

-

3616 words

more of Blake and Akik being g a y

I don't quite like this chapter but I don't have any clue on how to fix it so lol who cares