“Oooohhh Brownie~!” A feminine, childlike voice echoed through the barely lit halls of the Electi Rehabilitation Academy. An orange-haired girl wearing a lime green beanie and sweatshirt skipped playfully down the hall, brandishing a blood soaked kitchen knife in her right hand. Small drops of the crimson liquid dripped slowly down the sharp metal, pooling up in a trail behind her. “Where did you go, my love?”
___Brown brought his hands to his face and covered his nose and mouth in an attempt to muffle his heavy breathing. _“Calm down,” he thought to himself, “Just calm down. She won’t find you in here.”
____Brown had really taken a gamble when he decided to use this locker as a hiding place. It was the first locker out of the dozens he had seen when he turned the corner not even a minute prior. Thank god it was not only unlocked, but empty as well. He stepped inside it and slowly pulled the door towards him. It didn’t fully click shut, of course, but Brown didn’t want it to. As soon as his psychotic ex girlfriend passed by him, he’d make a dash back the way he came to the exit door he had seen not that long ago.
__“Brown, sweetie, where did you go? I’m sorry if I hurt you, but I couldn’t help myself!” The high-pitched voice called out, getting ever so closer to the area Brown was currently trapped in, “I needed to taste you again. It’s been so long, baby!”
With sweat pouring down his face and his heart beating so fast it could power a nuclear facility, Brown peered through the small horizontal slots of the locker. He watched as he saw an orange cluster of lights move forward and forward ever so slightly, before eventually turning left, indicating that the… thing… had turned the corner.
____That’s when he saw its face. Oh good lord, its face. Its eyes were unnaturally empty and big, big enough to cover up a normal person’s forehead. It lacked a nose. A huge hollow smile ran from ear to ear, a sickly snake-like tongue hanging out of it and dripping saliva down the thing’s torso. Three beams of light exited both the eyes and mouth of the creature, as if it were a walking and talking jack-o-lantern.
Tears started to form in Brown’s eyes as he watched the thing slowly examine the hall ahead of it. Its neck cracked loudly as it looked back and forth like some sort of security camera. It started to advance forward yet again, walking on its tippy toes as it continued to shine its lights from left to right. The light ran over Brown’s tear stained face a couple of times but thankfully for him, the creature didn’t seem to notice him.
He watched for what seemed like hours as the hideous creature crawled its way forth and past the locker he was standing in. He didn’t dare breath, not even for a second or despite the fact he had his face covered with his hands. He wouldn’t do so until he knew that fucking thing was far enough away from him.
“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you~!”
Brown panicked as he jumped up, bumping his head straight up against the top of the metal locker. He groaned in pain as his eyes darted down to his pants, or more specifically, his pocket. He felt his thigh vibrating and blasting music and before he could realize what had just happened, the locker door was violently ripped off of its hinges.
A boney clawed hand reached into the locker and wrapped its fingers around Brown’s neck, yanking him out like a stuffed animal. He didn’t even have time to scream before he felt pressure being applied against his throat. He gagged loudly and winced as a huge stream of light blasted him in the face. He couldn’t see that much past it except for a blood stained knife being lifted up and pointing towards him.
“There you are~!” The orange-haired abomination cooed, just before it lunged the blade forward into the helpless young man…
Brown sat up in his bed, attempting to scream at the top of his lungs. He found it hard to do so, however, as his hands happened to be squeezed tightly against his own throat, resulting in an audible choking sound. On his nightstand next to him, his phone’s screen lit up, showing that it was currently 9:00 A.M. and playing Rick Astley’s hit song Never Gonna Give You Up. It also happened to be buzzing like crazy, another feature of the phone when it was set to be used as an alarm.
“What the heck is happening here?!” A gentle, yet assertive voice called out to the left of Brown.
Brown, still with his hands around his throat, turned his gaze to meet that of his roommates Xander and Saki. They both looked at him with concerned looks on their faces. From their perspective, they had just turned the corner to see their friend attempting to choke himself to death with the most unfitting song to accompany it.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay, bro?” Xander gasped, putting his hand to his mouth out of shock as he made his way towards his friend.
Saki followed him and the two positioned themselves on either side of his bed. Xander put the palm of his right hand to Brown’s forehead and used his left hand to yank away Brown’s hands from his throat. Saki, on the other hand, decided to shut off the blaring music, leaving the three in relative silence.
“What are you doing?” Brown finally spoke up, jerking his head to the side in a manner that told Xander to back off.
“Your forehead is really burning up and sweaty. You might have a fever!” Xander calmly told his friend.
“Fever? What? No! I don’t have a fever, dude!” Brown exclaimed.
“That still doesn’t explain why you were strangling yourself,” Saki pointed out.
Xander nodded, “If you’re feeling depressed, just know that you can talk to us whenever you want. Suicide is never the answer, bro,” Xander flashed Brown a genuinely warm smile.
It took Brown off guard at first. Not once had he ever seen such a caring smile form on Xander’s face. Not once. Not even when he observed the boy hanging out with his childhood friend, Emily. It made his skin crawl, in all honesty.
“I wasn’t trying to off myself, you guys! I just had a bad dream is all, jeez!” Brown explained.
Xander exhaled a deep breath, running his hand through his hair, “Phew, that’s a relief! I don’t know what I would do if I lost you!”
“Me either!” Saki chimed in.
Brown narrowed his eyes in suspicion, “You guys feeling okay?”
Xander and Saki both looked at each other before turning back to Brown, “Never better!” Xander smiled, giving Brown a thumbs up.
“Right…” Brown raised an eyebrow.
Before Brown could ask either of them another question, the quiet, yet audible sound of an alarm sounding off filled the air. This time, the alarm was coming from Saki, who lifted his arm up to look at the time on his watch.
“Oh shoot! I gotta scram! I gotta get down to the gym before all the good equipment is signed out!” Saki said, stepping back from Brown’s bed as he turned to face the door.
“Wait, wait, wait! What? The gym? Since when do you go to the gym? That’s Xander’s schtick!”
Saki looked back towards Brown, a smirk on his face that conveyed he didn’t know what Brown was talking about.
“That dream of yours must’ve knocked a few screws loose or somethin’, Brown!”
“Oh c’mon now, don’t be rude, Saki!” Xander rushed to defend his friend, “You shouldn’t say things like that! It could really hurt his feelings!”
The bottom of Brown’s jaw nearly came crashing down onto his mattress. What the hell was going on here?
“I’m just kidding, Xander, you know that,” Saki looked at his watch again, “Gotta go! Meet you at the library at noon, okay Xander?”
Xander smiled and nodded, “You got it, buddy!”
And with that, Saki dashed out of the dorm.
“I should probably get going, too. Me and Emily are getting our nails done today! It took a lot of convincing, but she finally agreed to it yesterday!” Xander squealed, giddily walking towards the door of the dorm room. “This is going to be so much fun! See ya later tonight, Brown!”
And just like that, Xander had shut the door behind him, leaving Brown all by himself in the dorm room. His mouth still stood agape as a million different questions raced through his head. “What was that? Why was Xander so much nicer today? Saki at the gym? Since when? Xander with his nails painted? How? Why? What color would he go with?”
Out of all the questions he asked himself, however, one of them stood above the rest.
“Am I still dreaming?”
Brown yawned as he slid open his second to last dresser drawer. Rummaging through the various shirts he owned, his eyes came across his favorite blue and purple striped t-shirt. Yanking it out from beneath a couple of other neatly folded shirts, Brown threw the apparel on and slid the drawer shut.
Bzzzz!
Brown’s ears perked up as he looked over his shoulder, noticing that his phone’s screen had lit up. The boy approached his nightstand and reached out to grab his electrical device, gripping it in his fingers. Holding up the apparatus to his face, he let the front facing camera scan his face, as to allow the device to unlock itself. The little green square with a speech bubble inside of it indicated that he had received a text message from someone. Swiping his thumb across the screen, he opened his phone and navigated his way to the text messaging app. The message was from Splats, Brown’s current girlfriend and also the star of his most recent nightmare.
‘Study session still on for later?’ Splats asked.
Brown smirked as he texted back, ‘Yeah, for sure.’
__‘Can’t wait to see you <3’ Splats replied.
Brown hesitated for a moment, thinking back to his nightmare. He shook his head, feeling foolish that he would think any less of his significant other all based off of a freak dream. He texted back, ‘Same.’
Brown cracked open a can of iced coffee as he made his way to his morning class. The adrenaline that had flown through him when he had awakened from his nightmare this morning had dissipated shortly there after. Now his eyelids felt like they each weighed a hundred pounds and he needed to do something to make sure he didn’t doze off to sleep in class. Especially not in Miss Abigail’s class.
Closing his eyes and he turned right at an upcoming corner, Brown’s mouth opened agape as he let out yet another bellowing yawn. It was quickly interrupted, however, when Brown felt his body slam into that of another person’s. His eyes shot open quickly as he felt his grip on his beverage slip from him, setting the drink on a crash course to the freshly cleaned floor. Brown’s eyes widened in horror. He knew what he had to do, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to react in time. In a split second, Brown’s eyes met the iced coffee and he watched as the bottom of the can collided with the floor. That’s when the boy snapped his fingers. An audible clicking sound rang through the air as the coffee can cease to continue moving.
“Holy shit, that was close!” Brown stared in awe at the coffee can.
He was amazed that he was able to stop it from spilling out onto the floor. If he had snapped his fingers a second earlier or later, he would have been shit out of luck. He bent over and gripped the can tightly with his right hand, unlocking it and pulling it upwards quickly to counter the momentum the liquid had gained when it was tumbling down. That way, no liquid would seep through the opening at the top.
Brown sighed as he shook his head, “Hey look, sorry about that ma-!”
He was quickly cut off as he felt a cold, sharp object being pressed lightly against his Adam’s apple. His eyes widened yet again in horror as he threw his hands up in defense. His eyes darted down to see a furry light green paw holding a light blue colored switchblade towards him. On closer inspection, however, he quickly realized that calling the switchblade “light blue” wasn’t exactly correct. It was bumpy and slightly transparent, almost like an icicle.
That’s when it hit him.
“Leaf?” Brown narrowed his eyes.
The assailant’s free hand, er, paw, reached up to yank back the hoodie that had been concealing their face. Sure enough, behind it was the furry face belonging to Leaf. He looked absolutely pissed off, his snout contorted in a way that made him appear like a dog who had just discovered someone breaking into their owner’s house.
“You have a death wish, fucker?!” Leaf snarled.
Brown yanked his head back slightly out of both fear and shock. He had never heard Leaf yell before, much less swear.
“Woah, woah, woah! Leaf, what the hell? What’s gotten into you?” Brown attempted to de-escalate the situation.
He seemingly did the opposite, however, as Leaf countered back with, “What’s gotten into me? What’s gotten into you!? Blindness? Watch where the hell you’re going next time, dick head!”
Brown didn’t know what to say. He was completely taken aback by both Leaf’s words and his actions. How was he going to get himself out of this one? He could lock Leaf in place, yes, but he didn’t feel right doing so. Something was clearly bothering the fox boy to set him off like this.
A hand wrapped in a black fingerless glove suddenly grabbed onto Leaf’s shoulder. Just as soon as he turned his head to snap at the idiot who dared to put their hands on him, he felt a storm of electricity coarse through his body. Brown watched as the anthro jolted in place for a quick moment, the entirety of his fur standing up as a result of the electricity.
Smack!
Leaf’s unconscious body slammed against the ground like a sack of potatoes. Brown looked down at the now sleeping fox boy. A sense of relief washed over him now that his throat wasn’t going to be filleted like a fish. However, a sense of guilt was also present, as he didn’t like seeing his friend like this.
“You’re welcome,” a bored sounding feminine voice suddenly spoke up.
Brown shook his head and tilted his head up, “Yeah, sorry, thank you… P-Pearl?!”
Brown braced himself back against the wall as he scanned the blue-haired girl in front of him from head to toe. Her once puffy hair was now sagging down her face like a dying flower. Her red glasses were instead totally black now. More importantly, however, was the charcoal colored eyeshadow caked just beneath her eyes. An oversized spiked collar pressed itself firmly around Pearl’s neck. She wore a dark blue sweater with one of her shoulders exposed, presenting her matching colored tank top to those who cared to glance at her.
“Hey, my eyes are up here, lock head,” Pearl’s monotone voice called out.
Brown tilted his head up to meet Pearl’s eyesight, “Oh, right, sorry. I was just, uh… Is this some sort of phase you’re going through?” Brown pointed at Pearl, specifically her current getup.
“Ha ha ha, funny,” Pearl blew out an exasperated sigh as she turned on her heels and started walking off in the opposite direction, “C’mon, class starts soon.”
Brown took one last look at the knocked out fox boy on the floor before carefully stepping over his body, rushing to Pearl’s side, “Is he gonna be okay?”
Pearl shrugged, “I dunno.”
“What? What do you mean you don’t know?”
Pearl rolled her eyes, “I. Don’t. Know. Now stop asking stupid questions and get the door for me,” she gestured to one of the glass doors that lead to the outside area of the campus.
Brown sighed, but still did what she said. After all, they were going the same way.
“Gracious,” Pearl nodded at the boy as she walked past him, beginning to dig around in her pockets for something.
Brown, right by her side again, looked at Pearl and asked her, “What the hell was up with Leaf? Why’d he act like that?”
Pearl pulled out some sort of paper rectangle, but also answered Brown’s question with, “What’re you talking about? He’s always acting like he’s got a bad case of ‘Micropenis Syndrome’,” she snorted.
“I’ve never seen him act like that before in my life!” Brown brought his free hand to the top of his face, covering his eyes for a brief moment as he slid his sweaty hand down to his chin, “And I’ve never seen… you…” Brown’s words trailed off as he looked back over at Pearl, his jaw dropping.
Pearl, raising an eyebrow, looked over to Brown as she summoned a spark from her fingertip to light her cigarette, “What?”
Brown’s walking came to a screeching halt, “Since when the hell do you smoke?!”
“Dude, calm your shit, I’ve always smoked. Did you go too rough at it again with Splats last night?” Pearl grinned.
“What?” Brown looked absolutely dumbfounded, more so than he did before.
“All that pegging must’ve knocked something loose up here,” she flicked Brown in the forehead, surprising him enough to make him jump back and almost drop his iced coffee yet again.
Brown rubbed the top of his forehead as he examined Pearl walking away. She didn’t seem to care, or even notice for that matter, that Brown had stopped walking with her. She just sucked back another hit from her cigarette before she was forced to throw it on the ground and stomp it out if she wanted to re-enter one of the campus’ buildings.
Brown continued to stare in bewilderment, even as he watched Pearl open a door and disappear into a crowd of other students attempting to make their way around the campus. His knees felt weak and he decided the best idea would just be to quickly take a seat on the ground, right where he was. Much like the hour and a half or so beforehand with Xander and Saki, millions upon millions of questions entered his mind. And much like before, one stood above all the rest.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today?”